Norris’ concern before the start would have been about the losing a place to Leclerc, who was starting second behind the Briton.
The McLaren driver made a good start, the challenge from Leclerc never materialised, but instead Norris lost the lead to Piastri.
Norris was leading through Turn Two, but a strong start put the Australian second, and when Norris made an error and ran wide through Turn Two, Piastri seized his opportunity to take the lead.
That left McLaren with a quandary for although their cars were running one-two, the slower one was in the lead, and they were concerned about threats from behind.
Piastri led through the first pit stops, with Norris never much more than a second behind, but Norris started to challenge hard in the second stint and wanted to be given the opportunity to challenge his team-mate.
Norris asked to make his second stop first but was refused.
Instead, Piastri was called in, McLaren saying they were covering the threat from Hamilton, who had just stopped himself, and Norris was allowed to run for six further laps before making his pit call for fresh tyres.
Norris returned to the track just in front of Piastri, who had been delayed by a collision with Williams driver Carlos Sainz while lapping the Spaniard, who was penalised five seconds for the incident.
Piastri was clearly unhappy, telling his engineer not to talk to him shortly after Norris returned to the track.
But Norris’ pace afterwards justified the decision and he pulled away into a comfortable lead.
Piastri had just been promoted back to second place by Antonelli’s second pit stop when he lost use of his gearbox on lap 56 and pulled off after Turn Three.
That led to a late virtual safety car which enlivened the battles behind Norris, but he was untouchable as he and McLaren, who came to Hungary with an upgraded car, revived memories of some of their dominant victories of their championship last year.
More to follow
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