Piastri wins first GP after team orders drama at McLaren

Oscar Piastri won his maiden grand prix in a controversial ending to the Hungarian Grand Prix after McLaren teammate Lando Norris slowed dramatically to hand him the lead with three laps to go.

Piastri had controlled the first two-thirds of the race after seizing first place from his pole-getting teammate with a better launch off the line, but the team had incidentally swapped their positions at the second pit stops in a bungled attempt to cover the threat of a Lewis Hamilton undercut from behind.

Hamilton stopped on lap 40, with Norris stopping on lap 45 and remaining ahead. But the undercut was powerful at the Hungaroring, and when Piastri stopped two laps later, he rejoined the race behind his teammate.

The lead driver is ordinarily given the rights to the first pit stop, and the Australian had been promised the positions would be swapped back before the end of the race in lieu, but Norris made clear immediately that he wasn’t interested in playing the team game.

The Briton put his foot down, far exceeding the pace recommended to him by the team. His engineer, Will Joseph, implored him repeatedly to moderate his pace — ostensibly to manage the rubber to the end. Norris at first ignored the messages before eventually making clear that he intended to win the race.

“Tell him to catch me up then, please,” he said, arguing that he would have regardless pushed to capitalize on a mistake from Piastri in the middle stint, when he lost 3s running off the road at Turn 11.

The pleas from the pit wall became more urgent as Norris broke past the 5s barrier and the lap count ticked down.

“Lando, there are five laps to go,” Joseph told his driver. “The way to win a championship is not by yourself, it’s with the team. You’re going to need Oscar and you’re going to need the team.”

It took until the third-to-last lap for Norris to relent, dropping anchors on the main straight to theatrically wave his teammate into the lead. He briefly intimated that he would attempt to repass with DRS, but the lap count was against him, and Piastri was released to claim a victory that looked sure to be his before the second stops.

“Very, very special,” he said. “This has been the day I dreamt of as a kid, standing on the top step of an F1 podium.

“Obviously a bit complicated at the end, but I put myself in the right position at the start. Thank you to the team for an amazing effort and amazing car.

“It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren. I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity.”

Norris praised the team for delivering its first one-two finish since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix by dominant 12s margin but wouldn’t be drawn on his last-stint tactics.

“The team asked me to do it, so I did it, and that’s it,” he said. “An amazing day for us as a team. I think that’s the main thing.

“I’m so happy. It’s been a long journey to get to achieving this on merit, and that’s exactly what we did today, and a long way clear of the rest, so we did it in style as well.”

Hamilton completed the podium for Mercedes after a race-long fiery duel with old title foe Max Verstappen, who spectacularly self-destructed as he grappled with a recalcitrant car.

Verstappen’s long day started with a long-way-around move at the start. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images

Verstappen’s difficult day started at the first corner, when he ran off the road at the first turn but rejoined second ahead of Norris. It took four laps for the team to tell him to give back the position, firing him up for the first time in what would prove a long afternoon of frustration.

The Dutchman railed against the balance of the car, the tires, the quality of his opponents’ racecraft and his team’s own strategy decisions, and eventually the bile began showing up on track, with lock-ups aplenty in his battle for position with Hamilton.

A late first pit stop dropped him to fourth behind the Briton, and after being unable to find a way past in the middle stint, a late second stop dropped him to fifth behind Charles Leclerc in pursuit of a better tire offset.

He made short work of the Ferrari, but Hamilton again proved obdurate. Eventually he tried breaking through with brute force, locking up into the first turn and making wheel-to-wheel contact that sent the RB20 high into the air and landing with a thud in the run-off zone.

Both cars were able to continue, Hamilton in third but Verstappen back down to fifth, but the Dutchman faces the threat of a penalty after a post-race stewards investigation.

“Obviously, the close battle we had at the end was a bit hair-raising,” Hamilton said. “But that’s motor racing. I’m really happy. I’m grateful for the points.”

Leclerc finished fourth after a strong launch got him ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, who took the flag sixth.

Sergio Perez recovered well from a 16th-place start to finish seventh, collecting six precious points on a tough day for Red Bull. George Russell, starting 17th, followed him home in eighth with a bonus point for fastest lap.

Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to execute a one-stop strategy, executing superbly to score two points for ninth place.

Lance Stroll completed the top 10 for Aston Martin ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso.

Daniel Ricciardo was rapid in the final stint but not fast enough to recover from two early pit stops that briefly dropped him to last in the middle of the race, finishing 12th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu.

Pierre Gasly was the race’s only retirement after a suspected hydraulics problem.

Story originally appeared on Racer