Why Norris accepts Piastri deserved to win the Hungarian GP
In Hungary, McLaren ordered F1 race leader Lando Norris to let team-mate Oscar Piastri past. Mark Hughes explains the circumstances
It ended as a historic day for McLaren at the Hungaroring, but the 1-2 finish was clouded with controversy
DPPI
What was McLaren protecting at the Hungarian Grand Prix that it inverted the order at the race’s second stops? Lando Norris was undercut ahead of Oscar Piastri, with the team’s intention being to then swap them back around once Piastri had rejoined.
Piastri had claimed strategic priority by being ahead out of Turn 1 at the start of the race. But what strategic priority meant in the specific circumstances of the second stops had some ambiguities. Which is where the problems started.
There was a vague undercut threat to Norris from Lewis Hamilton and that’s what the team was trying to cover in pitting its second car first. With high tyre degradation induced by the Hungaroring, Norris’s out-lap on fresh tyres was always going to be a lot faster than Piastri’s in-lap on old. Given that Norris was less than 2sec behind his team-mate as he was called in, it was enough to put him ahead, as expected.
Lando Norris pitted before his team-mate on the second stops, then toed the team line, eventually
Piastri had been almost 5sec clear of Norris a few laps earlier and if he’d maintained that he would not have been within Norris’s undercut range regardless. But he’d ran off the road briefly and this had cost him a couple of seconds. Norris could sense an opportunity.
Piastri was left out for an extra two laps in order to maximise how much newer his tyres were than those of Max Verstappen who was just behind Hamilton and lapping very quickly. This allowed Norris to have a lead of 4sec over Piastri and far from slowing down, he’d pushed on and extended the gap.
Had Norris immediately surrendered the place, they would have been free to race. But by the time he was convinced to reluctantly give the place back, there were just three laps to go.
“I didn’t deserve to win the race, simple as that,” Norris said afterwards. “The fact I was in that position was incorrect.
“If Oscar has led the whole race, it’s not fair and I don’t think that’s how it should work, that he should just let me pass in order for me to win because I’m fighting for a championship. I didn’t give up the race. I lost it off the line.”