Piastri's first win complicated by McLaren team orders angst

Oscar Piastri took his first Formula 1 grand prix victory in Hungary as Lando Norris eventually complied with team orders, while Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton secured his 200th career podium after a collision with Max Verstappen.

Piastri took the lead down at the start of the race up the inside of Turn 1 while Norris - who reported throttle problems on his way to the grid - fell from pole to third, with Verstappen running off the track and taking second place.

Verstappen returned the position to Norris at the start of lap four after some protests from both camps over the radio, and the Red Bull driver soon fell three seconds behind.

Hamilton was the driver who pried open the pit window for the top six drivers having switched from mediums to hards on lap 17. Norris responded one lap later and Piastri then followed suit with a switch to hards on lap 19. He cycled back into the lead once the top six had all pitted and led Norris by more than three seconds - but lost time towards the end of his stint on hard tyres.

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Norris ended his second stint by pitting from second on lap 46 of 70, to ensure an earlier Hamilton stop was covered off, with Piastri responding two laps later - emerging second. The McLaren pitwall then planned to swap its two drivers without losing too much time but Norris argued the point using his more favourable position in the drivers’ championship as the example.

“I know you’ll do the right thing,” Norris was told by engineer Will Joseph over the radio as he held a four-second lead over Piastri in the final stages of the race.

Norris was then told to preserve his tyres - a repeated and subtle request to let Piastri back past. “I promise, I’m trying to protect you,” Norris was told. But by this time he was more than 5.7s ahead.

“The longer we leave this, the riskier it gets,” was Piastri’s brief plea to regain the lead.

Norris was then given another, sterner request. “There are five laps to go. The way to win a championship is not by yourself; it’s with a team. You’re going to need Oscar, and you’re going to need the team.”

Norris eventually relinquished his lead and let Piastri by, but followed the sister McLaren home over the final three laps.

Just as Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have done, Piastri secured his maiden grand prix victory in Hungary while McLaren took its first 1-2 since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix - a race that also left Norris disappointed and, coincidentally, also featured a Hamilton-Verstappen clash.

Verstappen's frustration boils over

Verstappen’s audible irritation during the race was aimed at his RB20’s understeer at certain corners plus the fact that he was undercut twice by Hamilton, who put on a serious show of pace after his first pitstop - to which Verstappen responded five laps later with a switch to hards on lap 22.

The championship leader began to reel in Hamilton and midway through the race he was in DRS range. Hamilton covered him off (with a small lock-up) at Turn 1 but Verstappen responded by trying to pass around the outside of Turn 2 - only to run wide.

Verstappen caught up again, as did Charles Leclerc, but Hamilton pulled into the pits for hard tyres on lap 41 - and Leclerc followed him to switch to mediums. Verstappen responded nine laps later with a switch to mediums after complaining about having been undercut - but Red Bull had at least given him sufficient tyre life to fight for the final podium place.

After leaving the pits, his frustration became clear again as his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase told him sarcastically “That’s some gentlemanly introduction”, in reference to his pace on his new tyres.

“Don’t give me that bull*** now. You guys gave me this **** strategy, OK?” replied Verstappen, as he soldiered on.

Having passed Leclerc for fourth into Turn 1 on lap 57, Verstappen had just two seconds between himself and Hamilton. The inevitable battle for third place came on lap 62 when Verstappen attempted to pass Hamilton around the outside of Turn 3. He ran out of racing room at that corner and complained that there wasn’t a car’s width left by the Mercedes.

So Verstappen came back again on the following lap.

This time, he came back and had the inside line at Turn 1 - but he locked up. As Hamilton turned in, the Mercedes hit the Red Bull’s left-rear tyre and briefly pitched Verstappen airborne.

“He moved under braking,” said Verstappen.

“I’m not even going to get in a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio. Childish,” was the reply.

Leclerc finished fourth and Verstappen - under investigation by the stewards - took fifth on the road ahead of Carlos Sainz.

Perez beats Russell in recovery battle

Sergio Perez’s qualifying crash meant he started the race 16th at a track that is not conducive to overtaking, but the Red Bull driver did put in a solid shift to finish seventh.

Perez pulled off a long opening stint on hard tyres to work his way into the top 10 and then completed two rapid stints on medium tyres to secure points on a difficult day for Red Bull.

George Russell, who started 17th, went longer than Perez in the first stint and toyed with the idea of a one-stop strategy, but ultimately settled a two-stop strategy to finish eighth and behind Perez.

Yuki Tsunoda finished ninth from 10th on the grid for RB with a one-stop strategy while Lance Stroll completed the top 10 for Aston Martin, having begun the race on softs.