Norris takes aim at McLaren 'abuse' after podium

Lando Norris believes McLaren has "proven people wrong" after abuse early in the F1 season over poor performances.

The British driver secured a second-consecutive podium finish with second at the Hungarian Grand Prix, holding off a charging Sergio Perez in the closing stages at the Hungaroring.

Norris had started third but was carried wide by the battle between Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton at Turn 1.

But he was able to overcome that and an undercut on teammate Oscar Piastri left him to defend position from Mexican Perez late in the race.

"[It was] a tough race," conceded Norris.

"Not an easy one, especially with Checo catching at the end but he didn't have enough pace to catch up.

"I had to fight for a little bit in the beginning - I got a bit screwed over in Turn 1, but another podium for McLaren, which is amazing."

Asked whether a win would come next, Norris replied: "If Max retires or something, maybe.

"But the guys are too quick unless they make mistakes or something happens.

"At the minute, we're happy with the progress we have made to go from where we were four or five races ago, struggling to get out of Q1 sometimes, to fighting for poles and fighting for podiums, we will take it for now and our time will come later on."

Hard work

McLaren's upturn in form has come after a major upgrade was introduced on Norris' car at the Austrian Grand Prix, before Piastri was in receipt of the package at Silverstone last time out.

On how so much performance was gained with the update, Norris explained: "A lot of hard work, great teamwork - everyone back in the factory did an amazing job.

"I think we knew it in the beginning that we were going to struggle and we looked pretty poor.

"We got a lot of abuse saying we weren't doing a good enough job, so I'm happy we have finally proven some people wrong."