Norris and McLaren almost perfect as Ferrari flounder in Hungary

Norris and McLaren almost perfect as Ferrari flounderImage source, PA MediaImage caption, McLaren's Lando Norris won his first grand prix of the year in HungaryByAndrew BensonF1 Correspondent at the HungaroringPublished7 minutes agoCommentsLando Norris ended the first half of the Formula 1 season with a victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix that he described as "one of my best performances".It was a drive that had been a long time coming, after a difficult start to the season for the reigning world champion and his McLaren team.But when McLaren finally gave him a car of the performance level he had become used to in the past season and a half, he more than made the most of it.While Ferrari, the pre-race favourites, floundered and made, in the words of their team boss Frederic Vasseur "too many mistakes", Norris and McLaren were almost perfect.Even in the context of Kimi Antonelli's stellar start to the season for Mercedes, this was one of the most impressive and convincing victories of the season.Norris' one mistake was on the first lap. He converted his pole position into a lead at the first corner, only to misjudge the grip available at Turn Two, slide wide, and gift his position to team-mate Oscar Piastri.It looked to have been a potentially fatal error to his victory hopes on a track where overtaking is all but impossible between evenly matched cars on similar strategies, but Norris stayed calm.Seeing he could easily keep pace with Piastri despite being in the dirty air, he said he always believed the win was on."It wasn't my finest Turn Two," Norris said, "but after that, seeing what my pace was like and I was just better in every sense, in terms of degradation and pace, I was convinced I could still win the race."Trapped, Norris begged for a different strategy to give himself a chance of victory, and eventually circumstances presented it to him.Around half-distance. McLaren pitted Piastri to cover off L...