Oscar Piastri won a highly-dramatic and controversial Hungarian Grand Prix for his first full win in Formula 1 after team-mate Lando Norris eventually heeded pleading messages from the McLaren pit wall to cede a lead he had inherited through their pit-stop strategy.
In a gripping and increasingly contentious 70-lap race, which also saw old rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen collide late on in a scrap over third place, Piastri overtook the polesitting Norris at the start and appeared to be impressively cruising towards his first grand prix win on just his 35th start.
But the McLaren drivers found their positions reversed for the start of the final stint after Norris jumped Piastri courtesy of a one-lap-earlier stop, which was seemingly timed by the team’s pit wall to ensure the Briton did not lose second place to Hamilton, who had already stopped, behind.
Norris was immediately told after Piastri’s later stop that he had to give the place back to the Australian at a time of his choosing, but high drama and uncertainty quickly unfolded as lap after lap the 24-year-old maintained the lead as the race entered its closing stages.
From what were initially polite to increasingly stern radio messages from his race engineer Will Joseph that he needed to move over in the interests of the team, Norris finally slowed down and relinquished the position on the pit straight with three laps to go and Piastri moved ahead back ahead to close out the win.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton collide at the Hungarian Grand Prix
All the while as that drama was unfolding for the win, the battle for the final podium position faced a similarly tense showdown as championship leader Verstappen chased down old rival Hamilton for third on fresher tyres.
Their battle ended spectacularly though when the two cars made contact as Verstappen attempted a dive down the inside of the Mercedes into Turn One.
With the Red Bull locking up its brakes, the two cars touched and Verstappen briefly went airborne with three wheels off the ground, bouncing back down on the track and going into the run-off area.
Anthony Davidson was at the SkyPad to take a closer look at who was at fault when Hamilton and Verstappen collided
Both cars were impressively able to continue, with Hamilton continuing in third for his second consecutive podium but Verstappen dropping behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to fifth.
Both drivers escaped any punishment for the incident, with race stewards ruling “no further action” was required.
Carlos Sainz was sixth in the second Ferrari after losing ground at the start although any time penalty for Verstappen for the Hamilton incident would likely promote the Spaniard one place at the Red Bull driver’s expense.
While the race panned out particularly badly for Red Bull’s championship leader – who at points appeared exacerbated over the radio with both his car’s handling and his strategy, with the world champion having now gone three races without a win for the first time since 2021 – there was some relative positivity for the team in the fact that under-pressure Sergio Perez drove a strong race from 16th on the grid to finish seventh.
But McLaren, who have moved ahead of Ferrari into second in the Constructors’ Championship, took a significant haul of 27 points out of Red Bull’s lead in the standings and are now just 51 points adrift with 11 races still to go in 2024.
George Russell started and finished one place behind Perez in the second Mercedes after his own Q1 exit for eighth, with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll rounding out the points positions in ninth and 10th places respectively.
‘The way to win a championship is not by yourself…’ – how the Norris-Piastri team orders drama developed
Listen in on the radio messages from McLaren throughout the Hungarian Grand Prix
On a Hungaroring weekend where they have absolutely dominated the timesheet to underline their credentials as a serious threat to championship leaders Red Bull over the remainder of this season, a team orders row had appeared the last thing that was likely to overshadow McLaren’s afternoon as they looked to close out their first one-two since the 2021 Italian GP.
At the start, Norris had immediately lost the advantage of pole for the second time in four races as a slightly superior start from second-placed Piastri moved the Australian ahead down the inside of the sister car into Turn One.
Norris also entered Turn Two behind Verstappen, although the Red Bull driver was too soon told to give the position back as he had gained it by running wide through the run-off area on the outside of the McLarens before returning to the track.
Listen to the heated radio messages exchanged after the Hungarian Grand Prix race start
Piastri, already an F1 winner from last year’s Qatar GP shorter-form Sprint, proved an accomplished front-runner in the race’s first half and opened up a lead of around three seconds from Norris up to the first round of pit stops.
At one stage in the second stint that lead had grown to five seconds, although an off-course moment at Turn 11 when the McLaren would have picked up dirt on its tyres cost Piastri some time and meant Norris was just two seconds behind him when the team called the Briton in to pit first at the second stops on lap 45 to ward off any threat from behind.
With the advantage of fresher and therefore faster tyres, Norris gained track position over Piastri when the Australian stopped two laps later.
On lap 49, Norris was informed of the situation and told to give the place to Piastri “at his convenience” before the end of the race.
McLaren’s Lando Norris felt team-mate Oscar Piastri drove a better race and believes it was the right thing to do to sacrifice the win and swap positions
Piastri, who had run wide again on his return to the track to lose some more time to his team-mate, was then soon told in turn: “Once you get to Lando, we will swap the positions but we want to avoid Lando giving up a lot of race time.”
But rather than getting closer together, Norris increased his lead and appeared the quicker of the two cars at that point of the race.
On lap 61, Norris was then told by his race engineer: “Ok Lando, 10 laps to go. We think both cars are using their tyres too much. Just remember every single Sunday morning meeting we have.”
A message to which Norris replied: “Yeah, well tell him to catch up then please.”
Having initially gone for the softer, more subtle approach with the Briton over a radio, a firmer-sounding Joseph then retuned on the radio two laps later to say that, with Piastri unable to close up, Norris had duly “proved your point”.
McLaren’s team principal Andrea Stella explains why they ordered Norris to let Piastri pass for the race win
Three laps later and the messaging ramped up in its urgency, with Joseph insisting: “The way to win a championship is not by yourself, it’s with the team. You’re going to need Oscar, and you’re going to need the team.”
It was on the pit straight at the start of the 68th lap that Norris eventually backed out of the throttle, with Piastri swiftly moving past, with the now-second-placed Briton simply saying on team radio: “You don’t need to say anything.”
The action continues next weekend with the final race before F1’s summer break, the Belgian Grand Prix. You can watch every session from Spa-Francorchamps live on Sky Sports F1 from July 26-28. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime