Reigning Formula 1 champion Lando Norris insists title pressure is all on Kimi Antonelli

Reigning Formula 1 champion Lando Norris says any title pressure going into the second half of the season is firmly on championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Norris won his first race of the season at Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, raising the question of whether McLaren can fight for more wins in the second half of the season and mount an unlikely charge for the title. Mercedes driver Antonelli currently has a 50-point lead over Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in second place and 91-point lead over Norris.

Heading into F1's summer break, Norris believes the pressure is firmly on Antonelli, but said a title challenge is not out of the question if he can replicate his Hungary form over the remaining races.

"The pressure is on him [Antonelli] for sure," he told Sky Sports. "There's no pressure on me. I've been feeling very confident.

"They [Mercedes] have made more mistakes as a team and we have made less and we have come strong but I expect them to still win races and expect us to win more races. We just need to be perfect from here on now for the whole year.

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"We need to improve the car still. We were certainly the quickest in Hungary from qualifying to the race. Not every race is going to be this simple, so we need to work hard to try to get the car to be this everywhere.

"If we can, maybe that [fighting for a title] is a genuine question."

Norris said there are clear areas where McLaren needs to improve and those shortcomings are currently keeping his expectations in check.

"One thing I've learned for sure is just to have no expectations of the future and just to work in the present," he said. "I think that's the way we've been doing everything as a team.

"That's why we're back on top today: just working hard on ourselves as individuals and also as a team. I just want to enjoy the break.

"Of course, I'm optimistic for the future and I think we can win more races, but we have good competition and there are still plenty of races I'm not confident in because the car is not to the standard that it needs to be in certain areas.

"But I have confidence in the team. I had confidence that we could win a race, and it came a bit sooner than I thought. I have confidence that we can improve in those areas that are not good enough at the time."