Oscar Piastri scored his first-ever F1 win in a dramatic Hungarian GP that was further complicated by McLaren’s strategy. Despite all the intra-team chaos, McLaren did finish one-two, with Lando Norris on the second step of the podium.
Lewis Hamilton survived his own share of drama with Max Verstappen to finish third.
- Piastri becomes the seventh different F1 race winner this year
- Hamilton secures 200th F1 podium finish
McLaren issues team orders at Hungarian GP
Norris, Piastri and Verstappen went three abreast into Turn 1 at the start. Piastri won this battle and led most of the race. However, McLaren complicated matters when it pitted Norris first during the second round of pitstops, seemingly to cover off Hamilton. As a result, Norris undercut his teammate and emerged in the lead.
Over the next few laps, McLaren made several calls asking Norris to give the position back to Piastri. But the Briton seemed hesitant and at one point even came on the radio to remind his team that he’s fighting for the championship.
After several tense exchanges, Norris finally conceded and slowed down to let Piastri through on Lap 68 of 70. This handed McLaren its first 1-2 finish since Monza 2021.
“This is really the day I dreamed of as a kid, standing on the top step of an F1 podium,” said Piastri. “[It was] obviously a bit complicated at the end, but I put myself in the right position at the start, and thank the team for an amazing effort and amazing car. It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing for McLaren, so I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity to be in F1. And to be able to win together 18 months in is an incredible feeling."
When asked about how difficult it was to let Piastri through, Norris admitted, “Every driver’s selfish and you have to be selfish in this game. When you’re just thinking of your own benefits, you’re only thinking of the good things. But of course, I put myself in his shoes and I realised I had to do what was right.”
Verstappen misses out on podium
Norris wasn’t the only driver involved in some tense radio exchanges with this team. Verstappen was evidently frustrated after being undercut twice by his rivals. When told that he was overworking his medium tyres, the reigning world champion hit back, telling his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, “No mate, don’t give me this s*** – you guys gave me this s*** strategy, okay? I’m trying to rescue what’s left.”
Things went from bad to worse when Verstappen made contact with Hamilton during a late-race battle. This dropped him down to fifth place, while Hamilton went on to secure his 200th podium finish. Following an investigation, the FIA concluded that no further action would be taken for the clash.
Charles Leclerc ended up P4 for Ferrari, while his teammate Carlos Sainz finished P6. After another poor qualifying, Sergio Perez made up some ground in the race to go from P16 to P7.
George Russell also battled his way up from P17 to P8, and was followed by Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll.
2024 F1 championship standings
Verstappen’s championship lead has been dented a bit after Budapest, but he still holds an advantage of 76 points over second-placed Norris. Leclerc is third overall, 27 points behind Norris.
F1 will now head to Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian GP on July 26-28.
2024 Hungarian GP results
