Oscar Piastri has become Australia’s fifth Formula 1 race winner, claiming his first grand prix victory in Hungary.
But it wasn’t without massive drama as his McLaren teammate Lando Norris threatened to take the race win from him following a strategy call in his favour, only relinquishing the lead in the final laps of the race.
An understated Piastri barely celebrated the win on radio, seemingly having his emotions dampened by the situation and apologising for his role in making the switch so difficult.
“The team asked me to do it, so I did it,” Norris said post-race, refusing to elaborate further.
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The 23-year-old Melburnian won a sprint race in his rookie season with McLaren but had never been first to take the chequered flag in a full-length race.
“Obviously a bit complicated at the end,” Piastri said.
“The longer you leave it, the more you get a bit nervous, but it was well-executed by the team.
“It was the right thing, I put myself in the right position at the start … yes my pace wasn’t as fast as I would’ve liked in the last stint but I was still in the right position to make it happen.”
Piastri joins compatriots Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo as F1 victors, becoming the championship’s 115th different all-time race-winner.
Both Webber, Piastri’s manager, and Ricciardo also won races early in their careers in Hungary.
At the Hungaroring, Piastri qualified second-fastest, just two hundredths behind Norris.
But the Aussie took the lead in the opening corner, going three-wide with Norris and Max Verstappen, getting the better run on the inside as Norris desperately tried to avoid his teammate, with the championship leader sent wide before returning to the track in second.
Verstappen was then told to give the place back, enabling Norris to reclaim second and giving Piastri a healthy lead out in front.
During the second stint of the race on hard tyres, Norris closed the gap to just over a second as Piastri lost time going wide in the tricky middle section and left with dirty tyres, losing his healthy advantage.
Norris was told he was OK to race Piastri, and then was given the chance to undercut his teammate by pitting two laps earlier going into the third stint, trying to cover the chasing pack.
McLaren promised they would manage the situation and insisted to Piastri he did not need to worry about Norris as he come back out in second place.
McLaren told Norris on lap 49 of 70 they wanted to “re-establish the order (with Piastri first) at your convenience”, and analyst Anthony Davidson suggested on commentary Piastri needed to quickly close the gap to ensure Norris – who sits second in the championship – couldn’t pull a power play and choose to hold onto the race lead.
Piastri’s engineer insisted the pair would swap positions “once you get to Lando” but they didn’t “want Lando to give up a lot of race time”.
When Norris was told on lap 56 to manage his tyres and eventually give the place back to Piastri, he responded: “Then you should’ve boxed him first then, surely no?
Told by his engineer “that doesn’t matter”, Norris replied “it does to me”.
Norris was later told “I know you’ll do the right thing”.
But amid continued complaints to Norris that he was using his tyres too aggressively, the Briton kept extending his lead and showed no signs of slowing down.
“Just remember every single Sunday morning meeting we have,” Norris’ engineer told him, in a reminder of the emotional damage he would be doing if he took the race win.
“Yeah, well, tell him to catch up then please,” Norris replied.
A few laps later Norris was told “you’ve proved your point” and “we did this stopping order for the team”, his engineer warning the Briton “I’m trying to protect you”.
Norris pled that he was the faster driver and claimed he would have taken the lead on-track anyway if he had stopped after Piastri.
“The way to win a championship is with the team. You’re gonna need Oscar,” Norris was told, with Martin Brundle saying on commentary the dispute was “extraordinary”.
Norris finally slowed down on the main straight entering the 68th lap of 70 and allowed Piastri to take the lead.
Sky Sports F1 analyst Ted Kravitz credited Piastri with clear improvement behind the wheel amid the hot conditions which saw drivers tearing through their tyre allocations.
“His tyre management is just perfect,” Kravitz said mid-race.
“And that’s something he’s suffered from the last few races – been very honest with himself and everybody else, it’s something he’s been focused on.”
Piastri’s victory sees Australia move into seventh all-time with 44 race wins, ahead of Italy (43), behind only the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, France, the Netherlands and Finland.
He famously moved from the Alpine team, where he was an Academy product they were hoping to promote into a race seat, in the middle of 2022 after a contract dispute.
He and his manager Webber instead managed a move to McLaren, replacing Daniel Ricciardo, for whom he has now recorded five podiums.
Piastri is the seventh different winner of the season, the most in one F1 campaign since 2012.
Source Agencies
