Yahoo Autos Oscar Piastri Wins First F1 Grand Prix, Lando Norris Begrudgingly Follows Team Orders
Oscar Piastri, after starting on the outside of the front row, won the battle of the first corner to control the start of the race.
Lando Norris was given the first pit for the McLaren drivers in an attempt to defend against Lewis Hamilton.
It looked uncertain if Norris was going to follow the team order to give the lead back to Piastri; ultimately, he did with three laps remaining.
In his Sophomore season, Oscar Piastri won his first Grand Prix. Piastri took the lead from his teammate Lando Norris on the start to control early Sunday morning at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Unfortunately, his win would not be smooth sailing and is quickly being eclipsed by how his teammate Norris handled team orders.
On the final set of pit stops, McLaren made the decision to pit Lando Norris before Oscar Piastri while Piastri was in the lead. At the moment, the reasoning was to ensure that Norris could protect the potential McLaren 1-2 from a hard-charging Hamilton.
Piastri, who passed his teammate on the opening lap to control the early stint of the race, was promised by race control that once the duo was safely back in 1-2, Norris would give Piastri back the lead.
With three laps to go, Norris slowed, letting Piastri make up the four and half seconds and retake the lead.
Norris stayed within DRS range of Piastri for the final two laps. Clearly, Norris still feels the need to make a point that, with a higher championship position, he should not have been asked to relinquish the lead.
"I know you'll do the right thing," the pit box told Norris.
The McLaren engineers spent more time than they should talking their driver down, trying to convince Norris to follow the plan set in the team meeting earlier Sunday morning.
"The way to win the championship is not by yourself; it's with the team," William Joseph, Norris' race engineer, directed. "You're going to need Oscar, and you're going to need the team."
Norris made the point that Piastri was on newer tires, and if he wanted the win, he could be closing the gap on his own. This one-sided thinking overlooks the fact that Norris had clean air and was gifted the better pit strategy for the sole purpose of protecting the 1-2 and not for the senior driver to take the win.
Once Piastri was allowed around Norris, the driver of the No. 4 was quick on his radio to let his team know he didn't want to hear any more about it.
"Yeah, you don't need to say anything," Norris said.
Piastri barely celebrated after his victory, and while the Australian is notoriously mild-mannered, it's clear the driver was wondering where he could have minimized his mistakes. During the course of the race, Piastri went off track one in turn 11 and, shortly after his final pit, put two tires into a gravel pit in turn 12. Those were the only mistakes.
His first message over the radio was an apology, "Sorry, I made this all a lot more painful than it needed to be."
When asked about potentially not allowing Piastri back by in the podium interviews, Norris was tight-lipped.
"The team asked me to do it, I did it, that's it," Norris responded.
There will be plenty of discussion throughout the sport if McLaren did the right thing or not. No matter the drama, the team still maximized their day, earning the maximum amount of points, while Red Bull suffered, with Max Verstappen finishing fifth and Sergio Perez eighth.
Hamilton held on to third position to complete the podium. Max Verstappen made an unsafe attempt to pass, causing a collision with the Mercedes and crashing himself. Verstappen would fall back to sixth and fight back to fifth. The stewards are reviewing the incident, and a penalty may still be coming.
Red Bull was outperformed by McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari as the field tightens shortly ahead of summer break.
Charles Leclerc finished fourth, his best finish since his home win at Monaco. His Ferrari teammate finished sixth, but if Verstappen is given a 5-second time penalty or greater, he will inherit fifth.
You Might Also Like
