Will McLaren be worried about Norris-Piastri relationship?

Lando Norris just held off Oscar Piastri as he led home a McLaren one-two at the Hungarian Grand Prix, narrowing the gap to the Australian to nine points in the battle for the drivers championship.

Formula 1 now has a summer break before heading to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix from 29-31 August.

BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions following the race at the Hungaroring.

Will McLaren be privately worried about the tense battle eroding the relationship between the two drivers, after Oscar Piastri again tried to dive-bomb Lando Norris? And if so, what can they say to both drivers to keep them both happy? – Jake

McLaren were pleased with the way the Hungarian Grand Prix played out. They felt it epitomised the philosophy they have espoused for their intra-team competition between the drivers.

They are allowed to race each other, as long as they are fair - and that includes the possibility of divergent strategies to try to win a race that has been getting away from one or another.

Thats what Lando Norris did in Hungary on Sunday. After finding himself in all the wrong places trying to pass Oscar Piastri off the line, Norris had to fight back from fifth place at the end of the first lap.

He and engineer Will Joseph opted for a one-stop strategy that McLaren had not really considered would be a serious choice pre-race. It won him track position over Piastri for his final stint, and he managed it to perfection.

McLaren did their best to give Piastri the best possible opportunity to beat Norris - by giving him as big a tyre offset as possible within the bounds of the race duration, even to the extent of costing him track position to Ferraris Charles Leclerc.

But it did not work out for Piastri - he caught Norris with a few laps to go, but Norris had kept his tyres in decent shape and was able to fend his team-mate off.

It created a tense, fascinating race. More than that, the radio transmissions - particularly those between Piastri and engineer Tom Stallard, as Piastri said he "didnt care" about Leclerc, all he wanted was to try to beat Norris - revealed for the first time just how much this fight means to both drivers.

Relations have been - and remain - so harmonious that it has sometimes been hard to appreciate the intensity of the title fight, how much it means to them, from the drivers public utterances. This left no doubt about it.

Far from being concerned, McLarens management were thrilled.

Chief executive officer Zak Brown described it as "an epic finish".

Team principal Andrea Stella said on Sunday: "When you have two great drivers, like Lando and Oscar, who race for a victory in a Formula 1 grand prix, and race for the drivers championship, its always going to be very close.

"But that was firm racing, it was fair racing at the same time. It was definitely within our principles.

"We had a bit of a lock-up with Oscar, but at the same time, Lando left some space, because he knew that Oscar would have been at the limit of braking.

"We keep being very proud of our Lando and Oscar racing. This is a great way of honouring F1 racing. These are the values of McLaren, and its going to be, hopefully, a matter between the two McLaren drivers, even if we saw Ferrari today was in the competition for the victory for two-thirds of the race.

"I think we have a very entertaining and interesting final part of the season."

Piastri locks up as he attempts to pass Norris into Turn One during the closing stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix

With Max Verstappen staying at Red Bull for next year, it would seem certain Mercedes will now re-sign George Russell. Is there any suggestion of how he feels about seemingly being considered the second option to Max given how well he has driven this year? - Tom

Russell made it very clear in the lead-up to the Hungarian Grand Prix that he was not especially comfortable about the way his contractual situation has been dealt with this year.

He is both managed and employed by Mercedes. He still gets to discuss his contract with Mercedes, but it means he has less leverage than he would in a more conventional arrangement.

As Russell put it: "Something we need to think about. What do they want and what do I want?

"We have been in a bit of a unique situation for the last few months. I dont have huge power in this agreement. And maybe interests were not aligned for the last six months.

"But its my job to perform and reduce that risk.

"I still trust Toto [Wolff] and the team will continue to support me, but for Kimi [Antonelli] and me, the last six months have not been the most assuring and that is conflicting."

Both Russell and Antonelli will continue to race for Mercedes next year. Its also clear that the same situation as arose this year could arise again next.

Team boss Toto Wolffs interest in Max Verstappen is not going to go away, and if Red Bull are not competitive next year, then Verstappen could well be looking for a way out.

Is there any clear explanation as to why Aston Martin performed so much better in Hungary than in the past? Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were significantly faster than the previous week. - Stan

Aston Martin themselves were a bit confused as to why their form had improved so much for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After all, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were together on the back row of the grid in Belgium the week before, and there they were together on the third row in Hungary.

But there doesnt seem that much of a mystery, really.

Alonso said: "I would say that its track characteristics, to be honest. We didnt change the car massively since Spa, seven days ago. No new parts for anybody. Just the layout, the characteristics of the circuit is just suiting our car, apparently.

"It will be nice to understand why the car is operating in this sweet spot here, because if we understand that, we can use it in the next few races."

There are two things to think about here. One is that, before Spa, Aston Martin had been on a positive trajectory after introducing a major upgrade at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in mid-May.

Alonso qualified fifth at Imola, seventh in Monaco, 10th in Spain, sixth in Canada, 11th in Austria and ninth at Silverstone.

In that context, its the Spa result that should be seen as out of kilter, not Hungary.

And thats simply because the Aston Martin is a car with poor aerodynamic efficiency, which struggles on the straights. And two-thirds of Spa is straights. The Hungaroring has a much higher percentage of corners.

Silverstone is also a fast track, but the other difference is that Aston Martin ran an old-spec floor at Spa, thinking it would better suit the track - including with the issue of bottoming at high-speed at Eau Rouge.

This meant abandoning the new floor introduced at Silverstone for a previous-spec one introduced at Imola.

Perhaps that also played a part.

Alonso drove a superb race on Sunday, committing early to the one-stop strategy that won Lando Norris the grand prix, to convert his grid position in Hungary into the same race result. And Stroll was less than 10 seconds behind in seventh.

It would seem logical to assume that Aston Martins form may continue to fluctuate according to track characteristics from now on.

Of the next few races, Monza will likely be a tricky event for them. But at Zandvoort and Singapore they can be expected to be contending for the top 10 again.

Does holding investigations after a race has finished damage the credibility of F1? I cant think of any other sport where the result can change afterwards. - Martin

This is presumably a reference to the decision to look into the incident between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at Turn Four after the race in Hungary.

This should be seen as a reaction by the FIA to many requests from teams and drivers in the past to look into potentially contentious incidents thoroughly, rather than make decisions themselves during the race.

Take the controversy between Verstappen and Lando Norris in Austin last year. Then, McLaren argued that stewards should have heard the views of both drivers before making a decision.

Thats what the stewards decided to do in Hungary.

As it turned out, Hamilton did not turn up for the hearing. Verstappen said: "I dont think Lewis actually felt a lot for it because if he really felt something for it, then of course hes there in the stewards room, right?

"I think both of us didnt have the best of weekends anyway, so thats just one little thing."

Of course, it may also have been that Hamilton did not turn up because he was in a bad mood after a difficult weekend and he didnt fancy arguing the toss over an incident that would make no difference to the result of his race.

The stewards verdict said that Verstappen was ready to give Hamilton more room, but that Hamilton had chosen to go off the track himself. It added: "There was no contact and the incident does not qualify as forcing another car off track despite the ambitious nature of the overtaking attempt and take no further action."

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