Oscar Piastri achieved his first Formula 1 victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, following a series of radio messages from McLaren to issue team orders on Lando Norris throughout the final stint.
Piastri had led the entirety of the race after taking the lead into Turn 1, opening up a healthy lead over teammate Norris in the opening stint and through the first pitstop.
“In every condition we had the race under control to get the 1-2. I don’t remember when McLaren’s last 1-2 was!” Piastri said.
“The longer you leave [the team orders call], the more you get a bit nervous. But it was well executed by the team, it was the right call, I put myself in the right position at the start.”
Despite McLaren’s intention to manage the race, giving Norris the undercuts but with the express purpose of covering off the cars behind, the situation became interesting when Piastri lost time on the exit of Turn 11 to bring Norris within 1.5 seconds.
Oscar managed to stabilise that lead ahead of the final pitstops and, despite being aware Norris would undercut him in the final round of pitstops, Piastri was told “not to worry” about his teammate with the expectation that McLaren would switch positions.
Norris hence made his pitstop on lap 45 and started to turn in quick laptimes on the medium tyre, with Piastri calling in on lap 47 and – as expected – being undercut by Norris.
Told to switch track positions whenever he had an opportunity, Norris told the team that he would only consider doing so whenever Piastri caught up. Lando had extended his lead to six seconds, initially showing few signs of willingness to comply.
As the orders to Norris eventually became increasingly firm, the Miami race winner eventually relented and slowed down on the start-finish straight at the start of lap 68, giving Piastri the lead and assuming second place.
Lewis Hamilton collected third position after surviving a Turn 1 assault from an increasingly frustrated Max Verstappen, who seemed to be in an angry mood throughout the race.
Verstappen had first been annoyed by the decision to let Norris through after the championship leader ran wide at Turn 1 and stayed ahead, and then sounded off about a strategy that allowed Hamilton to undercut him for third position.
Hamilton had defended hard at the end of his second stint on hards, stymying Verstappen’s progress, and then undercut the Red Bull driver once again – as did Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth.
Although Verstappen got past Leclerc and once again applied pressure on Hamilton, the Red Bull driver struggled to find a way past and eventually resorted to a late braking dive into Turn 1 – which caught Hamilton as he was turning into the corner and sent Verstappen slightly airborne.
Leclerc thus got past once again as Verstappen recovered, while Carlos Sainz attempted to put the irritated Red Bull driver under pressure towards the end of the race – but eventually ran out of pace to challenge for fifth.
Sergio Perez recovered from his Q1 crash to finish seventh with a long stint on the hards, but held just enough over George Russell to ward off the Mercedes driver.
Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll completed the top ten, Stroll once again beating Aston Martin team-mate Fernando Alonso into the points.
So congratulations to Oscar Piastri winning his first race following that sprint success at Qatar. The team orders situation between McLaren and Lando Norris will be a major talking point and yet this is racing. Oscar deserved this victory and yet Lando wants to reduce the points gap to rival Max Verstappen. In the end, the drivers did the switch and the team scored some solid points.
Hungarian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:38:01.989
2 Lando Norris McLaren +2.141s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +14.880s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +19.686s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +21.349s
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +23.073s
7 Sergio Perez Red Bull +39.792s
8 George Russell Mercedes +42.368s
9 Yuki Tsunoda RB +77.259s
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +77.976s
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +82.460s
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB +1 lap
13 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
14 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
17 Logan Sargeant Williams +1 lap
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
Pierre Gasly Alpine DNF
Oscar Piastri has taken his debut Grand Prix victory in Hungary after intra-team drama played out, with McLaren team mate Lando Norris belatedly responding to an order to hand back the lead to the Australian who had lost out due to the team’s pit stop strategy.
After the duo went three abreast with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen off the line, Piastri emerged as the leader into Turn 1 and from there led much of the Grand Prix. However, when Norris was pitted first during the second round of stops – seemingly to cover off Lewis Hamilton behind – the Briton was the one to emerge ahead.
This prompted the team to make several calls to Norris to give back the position to his fellow McLaren driver, an order that he seemed reluctant to follow for many laps. However, on Lap 68 of 70, Norris slowed down and allowed Piastri to pass.
The 23-year-old went on to take the win, two seconds up the road from Norris. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, claimed the final podium position in third for Mercedes, having faced drama of his own after contact with Max Verstappen during a late-race battle.
Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari, while Verstappen dropped down to fifth and will also be investigated by the stewards for his incident with Hamilton. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz followed in sixth, ahead of the Red Bull of Sergio Perez who made ground from his P16 starting position.
George Russell also took points after starting back in P17, having crossed the line in P8, while RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the top-10.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-wins-hungarian-grand-prix-as-norris-belatedly-hands-back-lead-in.70F4mNzYrbmvNYaj8KXm18
Oscar Piastri insists McLaren did “the right thing” to impose team orders and get race leader Lando Norris to move aside for him in Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Australian led the opening two stints of the race, but team-mate Norris was handed the undercut for the final stop by pitting first and took the lead for the final dash to the chequered flag.
McLaren then spent several laps asking Norris to give back the position to Piastri, as the situation grew increasingly fraught – with the British driver questioning how the pitwall had dealt with things.
He also asked why he had to give back the position considering he was pulling clear of his team-mate.
In the end, Norris pulled aside at the start of lap 68 and conceded the lead before following his team-mate home to take a McLaren 1-2.
Speaking about the situation, Piastri said: “The longer you leave it, of course, the more you get a bit nervous. But it well executed by the team. And yeah, I think it was the right thing.
“I put myself in the right position at the start. And yeah, with the different strategy we had, yes, my pace probably wasn’t as quick as I would have liked in the last stint, but I was still in the right position to make it happen. So yeah, well executed from the team.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/piastri-mclaren-did-right-thing-with-team-orders-switch/10637273/
Lewis Hamilton described his battle and crash with Max Verstappen late in Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix as “hair-raising”, but call it a racing incident.
Hamilton and Verstappen collided yet again in their F1 careers, this time as the final stages of the Budapest race won by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri played out.
Verstappen was making his way back towards the third place he had occupied in the first stint after he was forced to hand a position back to second-place finisher Lando Norris for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at the race’s first corner.
The world champion had just repassed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with a late-race tyre life advantage from stopping later in the two-stop contest for the leaders when he came up against Hamilton again – having been held off during a similar charge in the middle stint.
With eight laps left, Verstappen, who had gone off the road when Hamilton put in stiff defence at Turn 2 the previous tours tour, attacked at Turn 1 from a long way back.
He locked up both front wheels and with Hamilton having come closer to try and make the corner even with the Red Bull’s attack, Verstappen slid straight on and hit Hamilton’s right front wheel.
He went up in the air and off in the runoff and rejoined down in fifth, where he finished behind Leclerc as Hamilton went on to finish third without further issue.
“Ultimately, we didn’t have the pace of the McLarens, or did we have the pace of the Red Bulls,” Hamilton said after the race.
“But we were just able to hold on at the beginning of the race. It was very tough to hold on and make those tyres last.
“And obviously the close battle we had at the end was a bit hair-raising. But that’s motor racing. I’m really happy and grateful for the points. Big thank you for the team.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-hungary-battle-and-crash-with-verstappen-hair-raising/10637269/
Lando Norris has conceded that “it hurts” to have given up the Hungarian Grand Prix victory to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri as he fights for a maiden Formula 1 title, though he insisted it was the “fair” result.
The Briton again failed to turn pole position into the lead at the first corner as Piastri took the initiative on the inside, Norris instead forced to battle with Max Verstappen.
McLaren was forced to plead with Norris to make a switch that was promised to Piastri before his stop – Norris only pulling across with three laps to go, almost 20 laps after the pitstop window.
Asked how difficult a choice it was to allow Piastri through, Norris replied: “It was tough. I think it would be tough for anyone when you’re leading the race to give it up.
“I was obviously put in the position, so they made me box first and gave me the chance to lead the race and to pull away quite comfortably. I did what I was doing, but it also gave me the opportunity to do so, you know. Therefore, I think it was fair just to give the position back.
“I don’t want to come across like a guy who’s not fair. Oscar’s done a lot for me in the past and helped me in many races. He drove a better race than I did, you know, he got a good start, he got a better start and mine sucked. He deserved it and it was the right thing to do.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-fair-to-give-piastri-hungarian-gp-win-despite-championship-hurt/10637321/
Max Verstappen has told his critics to “f*** off” after the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, having been scathing of Red Bull’s race strategy plus external reaction to his clash with Lewis Hamilton.
The reigning F1 world champion continually vented his frustration at Red Bull’s strategy during the Hungaroring race and on the final stint he had dropped to fifth, but with fresher tyres attacked Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the Mercedes of Hamilton for the final podium spot.
Having got by Leclerc, Verstappen tangled with Hamilton at Turn 1 with eight laps to go, and dropped to fifth at the finish.
Speaking after the race, having felt McLaren was out of reach as it secured a 1-2 and that third place was his optimal result, Verstappen was pressed for a reaction to his critics saying he went too far in the race and disrespected his Red Bull squad over team radio.
He replied: “They can all fuck off.”
“I got a lot of shit thrown at me in Austria with people saying moving under braking, blah blah blah,” he said. I am positioning my car on the initial movement and then I keep it straight.
“Today, under braking he just kept turning to the right and that is why I also locked up because I was going for the move, but I saw the car on the outside kept coming at me. Otherwise, we would’ve already crashed before. I had to stop the car so that is why I locked up.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-tells-critics-to-f-off-after-hungarian-gp/10637327/