Damien Smith

And breathe. Formula 1’s hard-travelled teams and drivers take a well-earned break this month before the season resumes at the Dutch Grand Prix on 31 August, the start of a 10-race run to Abu Dhabi on 7 December. It has been utterly absorbing so far, thanks to the all-McLaren battle for the championship between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris - two beautifully matched but entirely contrasting racing drivers revelling in squeezing every drop from the best car on the grid.

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Just nine points separate them after July’s Spa-Francorchamps and Hungaroring doubleheader. Piastri won in Belgium and should have done so in Hungary too, only for a nothing-to-lose single pit-stop strategy to elevate Norris to an unlikely victory. Outqualified by both Piastri and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on pole, Norris dropped a couple more places on the opening lap. Strangely, it was the making of his Sunday afternoon, forcing McLaren into an unfancied tyre strategy that ended up working a treat. Stopping just once vaulted Norris into the lead, and in lower than usual temperatures on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, his hard-compound Pirellis had the life to survive a mammoth 39-lap final stint. F1, predictable? Not really.

But boy, was it close. This simmering grand prix came to a boil in the thrilling final laps as Piastri closed in on Norris. His move on the penultimate time into turn one, lunging with a lockup on the inside line, was inches away from a calamitous skittling of the sister McLaren. Now that would have been awkward.

This was a big turnaround by Norris. His summer holiday would have been much less restful had Piastri won: Norris would have dropped 23 points behind his ice-cold teammate, who makes far fewer mistakes. As it is, nine points is virtually nothing with so many races still to play. This is comfortably the best F1 duel since Max Verstappen versus Lewis Hamilton in 2021 and is set up to join the roll call of the closest, most gripping ever.

Speaking of Verstappen and Hamilton, both might find themselves uncomfortably distracted this August. The former has pledged himself to Red Bull for now but in the face of an all too obvious team decline, while the latter is wracked with angst over his ongoing struggles at Ferrari. Keep the faith, Lewis. You're not done yet.

FOUR-WAY FIGHT