"I knew it would be incredibly tough," claims Piastri as he opens up on his battle with Norris in Budapest

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

Having failed to claim his second consecutive victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren's Oscar Piastri revealed that he knew that "it would be incredibly tough" to overtake Lando Norris in the closing stages of the race despite his pace advantage.

McLaren looked utterly dominant across the practice sessions, but a sudden change to the weather conditions meant that they were unexpectedly challenged by several rivals.

In the end, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc got the better of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, but a second and third spot on the grid were still strong starting places for the Woking-based outfit.

At the start, Piastri held on to second place, but Norris fell behind the Mercedes of George Russell and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

With a one-stop strategy for Norris and fading pace for Leclerc, the McLaren pair worked its way up into the lead.

The closing stages saw Piastri close in on his team-mate on his fresher tyres, and the Australian mounted a several attacks, Norris held on to secure a one-two for the British outfit.

Asked to share his thoughts after the 70-lap Hungarian Grand Prix, the Melbourne-born was driver did not want to hide his disappointment for losing out to his team-mate.

"Mixed, I would say. You know, whenever you lose a race by such a little amount, it's obviously a bit painful, but I mean, I'm sure it was entertaining from the outside.

"It was entertaining from the inside as well. So, you know, pretty fun race, all things considered. But, obviously, when you're on the losing side of that battle, it's a little bit difficult.

"But, yeah, we tried our best, I think, and, you know, we got ahead of Charles. I don't know what happened to him in the last stint, but, yeah, some things to look back on, whether we should have done something a bit different in terms of strategy, but very easy to say in hindsight.

Asked about his comeback drive after his additional pit stop, Piastri noted: "I was confident, but I knew it was going to be still incredibly tough because getting close to the car ahead is one thing, but trying to overtake is a completely different story.

"I knew that I was catching him a lot when I had clean air, but as soon as I got close, it was incredibly tough to stay close enough. There are so many corners in the middle sector that in some cases it almost feels like you do a better job in some corners, and then you pay the price at the next one because you're even closer.

"That made it very tough. And then with such long corners to end the lap, it just kills any downforce you've got. So, I knew that was going to be incredibly tough. Even if I had more laps, I'm not sure the result would have been any different, but I certainly tried."

In the dying stages of the Mogyoród race, Piastri launched an ambitious attack against Norris into the first corner, but he was unable to overtake his team-mate.

"Not that much, I don't think. I was able to close the gap again pretty quickly for the last lap. But it's kind of like I said, getting to within six or seven tenths was doable, but to then get even closer than that, I think I needed brand new Softs to be able to do much from that point.

"So, yeah, it was always going to be tough when I got close. But, I mean, you never want to not take an opportunity that you think is there in case another one never comes up.

"So, I had to go for it and, you know, in hindsight, obviously you can say maybe I should have waited another lap, but I'm pretty convinced that even if I had waited one more lap, it wouldn't have changed anything."