Hungarian Grand Prix: Oscar Piastri wins for the first time in his career after a stormy race with McLaren
Put under pressure by his team, Lando Norris let his team-mate, Oscar Piastri, pass him in the final laps. McLaren completed the double, while Lewis Hamilton rounded off the podium.
After the qualifications which took place in the rain on Saturday, the sun is shining this Sunday at the Hungaroring. Lando Norris starts from pole position ahead of his garage neighbor, Oscar Piastri, a 100% McLaren front row for the first time since 2012.
The departure
The start is strong, Lando Norris slightly shoves Oscar Piastri to the right. Max Verstappen, on the other hand, chooses to go on the outside. Norris loses his first place to his teammate and finds himself in 3rd, behind Verstappen who gained time by going off track limits. Under investigation after this questionable move, the world champion gives back the position to Lando Norris to avoid any penalty.
Sergio Pérez, who started 16th after his crash in qualifying, is gradually climbing up the rankings and is in 11th position on the 14th lap. At the top of the standings, Norris continues to improve his pace and maintains a fairly consistent gap of about three seconds to Oscar Piastri. While just behind, Max Verstappen is having trouble hunting down the two leaders as he has to defend against Lewis Hamilton who is following him closely.
The puzzle of pit stops
On lap 16, the waltz of stops began for the drivers on mediums. The winner of the Silverstone Grand Prix stopped before the Dutchman to attempt the undercut. McLaren stopped Lando Norris, who returned to the track in 5th place. One lap later, Oscar Piastri also stopped. After the stops of Verstappen and Sainz, Charles Leclerc is the new provisional leader. The Monegasque had been running on medium tires from the outset and opted to keep them on for a while longer. This strategy is explained by the poor results achieved on hard tyres.
After 33 laps of the race, George Russell still hasn’t stopped at the pits. The British driver is in 7th position with very worn white tires.
At the midway point, the activity on the track increases slightly. Lewis Hamilton overtakes Max Verstappen and takes back 3rd place. The Red Bull driver gets upset on the radio, he complains about the performance of his car.
The nightmare continues at Alpine
At Alpine, we are paying the consequences of yesterday’s failed qualifications. After two pit stops, Esteban Ocon is in 18th position while Pierre Gasly, who was in 19th position, is forced to retire due to a hydraulic issue.
Charles Leclerc joins the battle for the podium by flirting with Verstappen’s DRS zone. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc pit simultaneously at the end of the 40th lap. Both men are now driving on fresh tires, while Max Verstappen chooses not to pit. The Dutchman will pit on the 50th lap.
McLaren pits Lando Norris one lap before Oscar Piastri. This obviously benefits the weekend’s pole man, who overtakes his teammate. Oscar Piastri’s engineer explains to him on the radio that this decision is made to cover Hamilton.
Max Verstappen follows up with the best times. He catches up with Charles Leclerc, which rekindles the Hamilton-Leclerc-Verstappen battle. Unsatisfied with the strategy chosen by his team, Verstappen gets angry once again on the radio and declares that he is trying to “save what can still be saved.” He does indeed push hard on his tires.
McLaren is pulling its hair out.
At McLaren, we are on all fronts. We must keep Lewis Hamilton at bay while managing the battle between our two drivers for victory. We are indeed making Lando Norris understand to slow down without clearly telling him to let Oscar Piastri pass. He is not pleased at all, he has no intention of lowering his pace.
In his battle with Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen made a mistake and his left rear wheel hit the Mercedes. He narrowly avoided a crash and got back on track, but now he is behind Hamilton and Leclerc. His behavior is annoying at Red Bull, who regrets these childish antics.
« If you want to win a championship, you will need Oscar and the team, don’t forget that ». Tensions are increasing between Lando Norris and his driver. Three laps from the finish, he finally gives in and lets his teammate win.
It’s in a strange atmosphere among the oranges that Oscar Piastri wins the first Grand Prix of his career in Formula 1 ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
