Lewis Hamilton reckons it will be “one hell of a second half of the season” when F1 returns from its summer break.

The seven-time world champion has won two of the past three races and claimed victory in the last race in Belgium – owing to his team-mates disqualification. A season that looked set to be dominated by Red Bull once again is now extremely competitive.

Max Verstappen retains a healthy lead at the top of the driver’s standings, but has only won three of the last nine races as the rest of the field close the gap. McLaren have evolved to become the fastest package on the grid, allowing both their drivers to win races for the first time.

Mercedes, after several years of struggle, too are back in the hunt and have won three of the past four races with Hamilton pleased to see them back in the party as he eyes an exciting ending with ten races left.

He said on the current state of play: “It’s really fantastic, I think, for the sport, to be having such close teams and drivers. The pedigree of drivers at the top today are really elite and amazing. We didn’t expect to be competing with the McLarens or the Red Bulls at this point in the season, you know, with how we started off, so for us to now have closed up and be… It’s going to be one hell of a second half of the season, for sure.”

The paddock will resume at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort in a matter of weeks. One of the major subplots is whether Norris can chase down Verstappen’s lead as the current world champion eyes a fourth title on the bounce – a feat only achieved by four drivers in history.

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has talked up the possibility for their car to improve further. He claimed they haven’t done anything new to the car since the Miami Grand Prix – but is ready to bring developments.

He said: “Talking for McLaren, we seem to be now in condition to cash in some of these developments that we have accrued in the background. I would expect that for the second part of the season, we will have multiple paths, and in a way, I am surprised that we have been so competitive, considering that from Miami onwards, we haven’t actually brought trackside many new parts. It means that the Miami upgrade was big, but there’s some upgrades that will come in the second part of the season.”

Oscar Piastri has talked down the speed of the McLaren – insisting all of the teams have areas where they excel. “We definitely still do have some different characteristics [to Red Bull],” said the Australian. “In my opinion, Budapest is really the only weekend for us where you can clearly say [we were fastest], because even in saying that, if Max got through the traffic quicker, he would have posed a serious threat.

“At other races, Mercedes has looked very strong with Canada and Silverstone very strong and Ferrari have been very quick at certain races as well.”