Piastri Gets Controversial First F-1 Victory In Hungary

MOGYOROD, Hungary – In a tenuous closing stretch of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri moved past McLaren teammate Lando Norris with three laps left to take his maiden Formula One victory.

Piastri was the dominant driver for the first two stints at the Hungaroring, but was shuffled back to second behind Norris after the latter was called to pit two laps earlier than Piastri, in a successful effort to fend off the undercut of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton from behind.

That was a reversal of McLaren’s planned strategy, which would have had Piastri pit first in order to maintain the lead, but began to dissolve after Piastri made his lone misstep of the race with an off-track moment at turn 11 on the 33rd lap.

Piastri had a lead of more than four seconds over Norris at that stage, but lost more than half of that gap due to the off, throwing the monkey wrench into the works by the time Piastri came down pit road with 22 laps left.

The end result was that Norris cycled out to a near four-second lead over Piastri on lap 50, and actually lengthened the gap out to more than six seconds over the ensuing 15 laps, trying to force McLaren into making the tough decision to leave him out front.

Ultimately, however, team orders finally won out.

Increasingly nervous radio messages to Norris were finally obeyed with three laps left, when Norris eased off the throttle coming down the main straightaway to allow Piastri to retake the top spot.

Despite Norris remaining in DRS range for most of the remaining distance, Piastri fended his teammate off and took a 2.141-second victory at the checkered flag – his first Grand Prix win at the F-1 level.

The 23-year-old Melbourne native becomes the 115th driver to win in F-1 and the fifth Australian to do so, joining Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Daniel Ricciardo, and his manager, former driver Mark Webber.

“This is very, very special,” said Piastri, who had a Saturday sprint race win to his credit last year in Qatar, but had yet to break through on the Sunday stage.

“This is a day I dreamed of as a kid, standing on the top step of the podium. [It was] a bit complicated at the end, but I put myself in a good position off the start [to have earned the victory],” he continued. “[The car] is a beast at the moment, fast in every condition, and to stand here a winner is unbelievable.”

Adding to his accolades, Piastri was also voted Driver of the Day with 34 percent of the votes. He led a race-high 46 of the 70 laps at the 2.722-mile, 14 turn circuit.

Norris started from pole, but lost the lead to his teammate at turn one after a three-wide battle to the corner between himself, Piastri, and a charging Max Verstappen – whose Red Bull went wide on corner exit and dropped to fourth behind Hamilton.

The Brit hung on to second and settled in there for most of the race, before his lap-46 pit stop at the end of the second stint allowed him to jump Piastri as a result of his fresher medium-compound tires.

It was where he finished in the end, too, after grudgingly ceding to the team order he was given in the final laps.

That frustration was evident in Norris’ voice after the race too, when he was asked about the situation in his post-race interview.

“The team asked me [to let Oscar by], and I did, so…” Norris said curtly before trailing off.

“It’s still an amazing day for us as a team; that’s the main thing,” he added. “[It’s been] a long journey to achieving this [performance] on merit, and we were a long way clear of the rest [of the pack]. Oscar got me off the [starting] line; [a win] has been coming for him and he deserved it today.”

Sunday marked the first one-two finish for McLaren F-1 since the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 2021, when Ricciardo beat Norris to the checkered flag.

Hamilton earned his 200th career F-1 podium by finishing third, followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen’s rough day was compounded when he overcooked the entry into turn one inside of 10 to go, with Hamilton then tagging the left-rear tire of Verstappen’s car and sending its back half flying several feet into the air.

Despite coming down hard on all four wheels, the three-time defending F-1 champion was able to continue on and finished fifth.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Mercedes’ George Russell, Visa CashApp RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll closed the points-scoring drivers in the top 10.

The only driver to retire from the race was Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who fell out early with a suspected hydraulic leak.

The Formula One World Championship season continues Sunday, July 28 with the Rolex Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Verstappen is the three-time defending winner of the event.

The finish:

1. Oscar Piastri, 2. Lando Norris, 3. Lewis Hamilton, 4. Charles Leclerc, 5. Max Verstappen, 6. Carlos Sainz, 7. Sergio Perez, 8. George Russell, 9. Yuki Tsunoda, 10. Lance Stroll, 11. Fernando Alonso, 12. Daniel Ricciardo, 13. Nico Hulkenberg, 14. Alex Albon, 15. Kevin Magnussen, 16. Valtteri Bottas, 17. Logan Sargeant, 18. Esteban Ocon, 19. Guanyu Zhou.

Lap Leader(s): Lando Norris Grid, Oscar Piastri 1-18, Verstappen 19-21, Leclerc 22-23, Piastri 24-48, Verstappen 49, Lando Norris 50-67, Oscar Piastri 68-70.

Driver of the Day: Oscar Piastri (34%)