Oscar Piastri claimed the maiden win of his Formula 1 career in an action-packed Hungarian GP. With this win, Piastri became the seventh different driver in this year’s F1 season to step on the top of the podium.
Piastri started second on the grid behind teammate Lando Norris. However, Norris again got off to a bad start resulting in Piastri taking the lead in Turn 1 of the very first lap. Piastri was more or less untroubled for much of the race but McLaren’s pitstop strategy almost took the win away from the Aussie and handed it to Norris.
Piastri however did manage to register his first win but the celebrations were overshadowed by the controversies at the McLaren.
Let us take a look at three big talking points from the Hungarian GP.
McLaren’s Team Orders Controversy
Oscar Piastri was having a somewhat pleasant afternoon in the sunshine of Hungaroring. A comfortable gap of 3 seconds over Lando Norris with the majority of the race finished meant Piastri was all set to celebrate his maiden F1 Grand Prix win.
As the teams began their final round of pitstops, it was thought that Piastri, being ahead of Norris, would be given first service so that he could maintain his lead at the front.
However, McLaren strategists had something else in mind as they called in Norris first into the pit lane. Knowing how strong the undercut works at Hungaroring, this meant that by the time Piastri completed his pitstop, Norris was already ahead of his teammate and had taken the lead of the race.
This is when things got fascinating. Norris was given team orders on the radio to let his teammate pass him, however, Norris seemed to ignore the messages and continued to add to his lead. Things seemed to go out of hand for McLaren as Norris’ lead over Piastri rose to 5 seconds with just 4 laps remaining.
McLaren’s radio engineer told Norris that he still has a long way to go to catch Max Verstappen in the Drivers Standings and that he would need the help of Piastri in the latter stages of the season. Norris slowed down in the penultimate lap and handed Piastri the win.
Norris’ reluctance to abide by the team orders has sparked some controversies in the McLaren garage and it remains to be seen whether the Hungaroring incident has any lasting effects on the team.
‘It’s childish’: GP slams Max Verstappen on the team radio
Reigning F1 World Champion Max Verstappen had a weekend to forget as he finished a disappointing 5th in Hungary. A combination of on-track incidents and bad strategy meant that the Dutchman was more or less a spectator to the front three.
Verstappen gained an unfair advantage in the first corner of the Lap 1 and was forced to give the place back to Norris. Verstappen’s anger was fueled when Red Bull allowed the rival teams to undercut Verstappen at regular intervals resulting in the 3-time World Champion having to pass the same drivers twice.
He then encountered an incident against Lewis Hamilton when the two rivals were battling for the final podium spot. Verstappen made a lounge from a very far back and was unable to control the car resulting in a hefty contact with the Mercedes. Thankfully both the cars escaped unaffected by the collision, however, Verstappen did lose a place to Leclerc.
The Dutchman seemed frustrated with the incident and claimed that Hamilton moved in the braking zone. His radio engineer Gianpiero Lambiase quickly shut down the claims from his driver and claimed that fighting for the incident was ‘childish’
Max: “Shouldn’t you leave a car’s width?”
GP: “We think you were behind at the apex, Max.”
Max: “Okay, whatever, man.”
Max: “He moved under braking.”
GP: “I’m not even going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio, childish.”
Norris and Hamilton exchange words in the cooldown room
After an eventful battle on track, things got a bit spicy off-track in the cooldown room between Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes man seemed to complement the race pace of McLaren, however, that did not go down well with the fellow Britt.
“Yeah, you had a fast car about seven years ago, mate,” Norris replied to Hamilton’s statement about McLaren’s fast pace.
Hamilton laughed and said, “Seven years ago is a long time!”
Norris said: “Yeah well, you had a quick car, you made the most of it, and now it’s us.”
“I wasn’t complaining, I was complimenting your car,” Hamilton replied.
Norris cut Verstappen’s lead to 76 points going into the Belgian Grand Prix. McLaren are also chasing RedBull in the Constructors Championship with RedBull’s lead now down to 51 points.
Given how both the McLaren drivers are going about this season and adding Sergio Perez’s struggles for Red Bull, McLaren are tipped by many to win the F1 Constructors Championship this season.
Read More: 5 Possible Sergio Perez Replacements at Red Bull Mid-Season as the Driver’s Poor Form Continues
Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
