Oscar Piastri captured the first win of his Formula One career on Sunday at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, but not without a bit of drama.
McLaren teammate Lando Norris belatedly obeyed a team order to slow down and let the 23-year-old Australian move past him on Lap 68 of the 70-lap race. That came after the team implored Norris to do so for the final quarter of the race.
Piastri, an Australian, finished in 1:38:01.989. He captured 25 points by virtue of his first-place finish.
“(It’s) very, very special,” Piastri said. “This is really the day I dreamed of as a kid, standing on the top step of an F1 podium. Obviously a bit complicated at the end but I put myself in the right position at the start, and thank you to the team for an amazing effort, and amazing car. It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing for McLaren so I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity to be in F1, and to be able to win together 18 months in is an incredible feeling.”
Norris secured second place and 18 points after ending up 2.141 seconds behind Piastri.
“It was an amazing day for us as a team, that’s the main thing,” Norris said, per ESPN. “It’s been a long journey to achieving this on merit and a long way clear of the rest so we did it in style. Of course to Oscar — he got a good start, he had me off the line and controlled the race well, it was coming at some point and he deserved it today.”
When asked how he felt on following orders and doing — in the team’s words — “the right thing,” Norris was succinct.
“The team asked me to do it and I did it so, yeah,” Norris said.
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes secured his 200th career podium after finishing third, 14.88 seconds in back of Piastri. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari (19.686) captured 12 points for his fourth-place finish, while Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing (21.349, 10 points) ended up fifth.
Verstappen leads the standings with 265 points, well ahead of Norris (189).
–Field Level Media