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Piastri clinches first GP victory after stunning drama with teammate Norris
By Russell Bennett
No sport does drama quite like Formula 1.
On lap 68 of the 70-lap Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren’s Lando Norris slowed down to let Australian star Oscar Piastri past – securing the 23-year-old his maiden victory at the pinnacle of motor sport.
Piastri’s unflinching nerves of steel have long been his calling card, and on the first corner of the first lap at the famous Hungaroring they delivered him his most important overtake to date.
Starting second on the grid alongside Norris, Piastri – a product of bayside Melbourne – was squeezed into the first corner on the dirty side of the track, but held his line – emerging from the tight right-hand hairpin with the lead, and holding it.
That overtake proved crucial 67 laps into the 70-lap race when McLaren sensationally ordered Norris to let him past after Norris was earlier given preferential treatment over Piastri for pit-stop strategy to hold off a rampaging Lewis Hamilton behind them.
Piastri had earned the victory – except for a couple of brief blips when he dropped some pace as he ran wide. He gapped not only Norris but triple Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen to join Sir Jack Brabham (14 times), Alan Jones (12), Mark Webber (9) and Daniel Ricciardo (8) as an Australian F1 race winner.
But Norris had proved his point – inheriting the lead on lap 45 and pouring on the pace until he eventually relented after panicked pleas from his own team to give Piastri back his rightful place.
“We’d like to re-establish the order at your convenience,” Norris was told on lap 48.
His response?
Outright speed – aiming to prove who the team’s No.1 driver really is.
Piastri (centre) celebrates on the podium with third-placed Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (left) and McLaren’s Lando Norris, who came second.Credit: AP
Piastri was told over the radio “once you get to Lando, we’ll swap positions”. But that could have been construed as Piastri needing to catch Norris first, and Norris kept extending the margin – from three seconds to nearly six in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
It was clear Piastri wasn’t going to catch his teammate. This was all up to Norris, as the pointed messages headed his way over the radio by McLaren showed.
“The way to win a championship is not by yourself – it’s with the team,” McLaren told Norris as they urged him to relent when he showed no signs of doing so.
“You’re going to need Oscar, and you’re going to need the team. Just remember every single Sunday morning team meeting we have. Lando, you’ve proved your point...”
And Norris did prove his point before he finally relented in the closing stages.
“Thank you very much – thanks for the co-ordination,” Piastri told his team over the radio after he crossed the line for the chequered flag.
“Sorry I made the swap a little harder than it needed to be. First F1 win – thank you very much.”
The incident drew instant comparisons to one of the most awkward moments in F1 history when, at Malaysia’s Sepang in 2013, Sebastian Vettel roared past Australian star Mark Webber, despite being ordered to hold position in P2.
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri takes the chequered flag to win the Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix on Monday morning (AEST).Credit: AP
Webber is a long-time mentor of Piastri’s and is now his manager.
But while Vettel disobeyed team orders and showed the kind of ruthlessness that made him a multiple-time world champion, Norris saw the bigger picture this time around – a 1-2 finish for his team as he edged closer in this year’s title race with Verstappen.
After the race, his maturity showed.
“It’s an amazing day for us as a team – that’s the main thing,” Norris told Sky Sports before the podium presentations.
Piastri en route to his first F1 grand prix victory.Credit: AP
“He got me off the line and controlled the race well. He deserved it today.”
But when former world champion Nico Rosberg, who famously pulled the pin on his top-flight career after proving his own point in beating then-teammate Hamilton to the 2016 title, quizzed Norris on his true feelings about the result, the Brit tellingly said: “The team asked me to do it (to relent), so I did it.”
Piastri maintained his composure, thanking McLaren for wiser heads prevailing.
“It was a bit complicated at the end,” he said. “[But] I put myself in the right position at the start.
“What an amazing feeling to be able to manage a race like that and secure a 1-2.”
And asked how worried he was that Norris wasn’t letting him past, Piastri said openly: “The longer you leave it, the more you get a bit nervous, but it was well executed by the team.”
Speaking to Sky Sports after the presentations, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told Rosberg – whose at-times fractious on-track relationship with Hamilton made constant headlines: “None of us, the team, Lando, Oscar, can go [it] alone. That’s the message, and that’s the message that we discuss on a Sunday morning [prior to a race], and with race drivers – Nico can remind us – you need to refresh this message. That’s why we have these meetings every Sunday and we are extremely pleased our drivers are supporting the trajectory of McLaren.”
Later, Norris explained what happened on the very first corner of the race – the telling moment when he ceded control of his own destiny.
Australian winners of Formula 1 Grand Prix
- Sir Jack Brabham (1955-1970) 14 wins
- Alan Jones (1975-81, 1983, 1985-86) 12 wins
- Mark Webber (2002-2013) 9 wins
- Daniel Ricciardo (2011-2024) 8 wins
- Oscar Piastri (2023-current) 1 win
PODIUM FINISHES
Webber 42, Ricciardo 32, Brabham 31, Jones 24, Piastri 6, Tim Schenken (1970-1974) 1
“That’s where I lost my race today,” said the 24-year-old, who has now finished second 12 times in his F1 career and has just one win so far.
“I had a bad shift into second [gear] – my launch [off the start] was fine, my reaction, my launch was good, but I shifted into second and just had a massive cut. It’s something I’ve got to look at.”
When asked by Sky whether the driver with the higher position in the championship should be given preferential treatment during the race, Norris pointedly said: “We’ll see at the end of the year.”
But the drama wasn’t just contained to the inter-McLaren battle.
Verstappen came together with Hamilton on lap 63 – the flashpoint of a frustrating day for the Dutch superstar.
“At the end of the day, if we would have done a better [pit] strategy, you’re not in that position,” Verstappen said after starting third on the grid and finishing fifth after losing out to Hamilton twice through the timing of his pit stops. “I went for a move that was fully on, I don’t think I braked too late, but we got together.”
Verstappen had at-times tense exchanges with his own Red Bull team over the radio, but was unapologetic.
“I don’t think we need to apologise - we just need to do a better job,” he said.
“I don’t know why people think that you cannot be vocal on the [team] radio. This is a sport and if some people don’t like that, then stay home.”
Verstappen leads the world championship standings with 265 points, ahead of Norris (189), Charles Leclerc (162), Carlos Sainz (154) and Piastri (149).
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2024 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX FINISHING ORDER
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1:38:01.989
- Lando Norris (McLaren) +2.141 sec
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +14.880
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +19.686
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +21.349
- Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) +23.073
- Sergio Perez (Red Bull) +39.792
- George Russell (Mercedes) +42.368
- Yuki Tsunoda (RB) +1:17.259
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +1:17.976
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1:22.460
- Daniel Ricciardo (RB) +1 lap
- Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) +1 lap
- Alexander Albon (Williams) +1 lap
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas) +1 lap
- Valtteri Bottas (Sauber) +1 lap
- Logan Sargeant (Williams) +1 lap
- Esteban Ocon (Alpine) +1 lap
- Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) +1 lap
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +37 laps