Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri narrowly avoid Hungarian GP practice clash

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri came dangerously close to colliding during Friday practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

During the dying moments of second F1 practice at the Hungaroring, Norris was exiting in the pit lane.

When leaving the pit lane, Norris locked up and nearly collided with his teammate driving through Turn 1.

It was a tense moment for the two title contenders, separated by just 16 points at the top of the drivers’ standings.

Piastri could extend his lead to 23 points with a seventh victory of the year on Sunday.

However, the momentum this weekend appears to be on Norris’ side.

The British driver topped the two practice sessions ahead of teammate Piastri.

McLaren appear to have a dominant margin over Charles Leclerc, who ended both sessions in third.

Reflecting on his session, Norris said: “The car, since the first lap, felt pretty good. All of my laps were decent.

“This session was a little more messy, on low fuel and high fuel, with a few more mistakes.

“But it’s all a part of practice and trying to find the limits in different areas.

I know what I want from the car but it might be hard getting it.”

Piastri eyes improvement

Unlike at Spa-Francorchamps last time out, Norris seems to have a clear pace advantage.

Piastri topped practice and stormed to a dominant sprint race pole position at the Belgian GP.

While he lost out to Norris in main qualifying, he overtook his teammate to take the win.

“We had to change a few things to make it better but the performance was good,” Piastri explained.

“All in all, happy. There are some things to tidy up, it wasn’t the smoothest of FP2s. “But the underlying pace is good.”

Piastri’s maiden F1 victory came at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Norris was forced to move over for his teammate after McLaren accidentally allowed him to lead the race.

Norris stopped before teammate Piastri as they looked to cover Lewis Hamilton behind.

Sky F1 pundit Bernie Collins has tipped Norris to take pole ahead of Piastri this weekend.

“Norris. I said Piastri was the driver of the year and he’s done well. But I think Norris will do it,” she said.