Piastri wins in Hungary after Norris team orders row

Piastri took his first career grand prix win

Oscar Piastri took his maiden grand prix victory in a McLaren one-two ahead of Lando Norris in a dramatic race in Hungary, amid a heated row over team orders.

Behind them, in a race full of see-sawing action, old rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen collided as they disputed third place.

Both continued but Hamilton held on to third and the Red Bull driver, his race full of radio messages peppered with swearing, dropped back to finish fifth behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

McLaren’s team orders controversy unfolded as they tried to manage their way to a one-two, their first since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.

Piastri led Norris for most of the race after taking the lead in a three-car fight between them and Verstappen around the first corner.

But an earlier final pit stop for Norris - made by McLaren to protect him against Hamilton’s Mercedes, which had stopped earlier - put him ahead of Piastri.

Norris was repeatedly asked to slow and let Piastri back past, and reminded of his responsibility to the team, but he refused to do so until just two laps from the end.

His engineer Will Joseph reminded him to “remember every Sunday morning meeting” and “I tried to protect you”.

He also told him that “the way to win a championship is with the team - you’re gonna need Oscar and you’re going to need the team”.

Norris argued that Piastri would have to catch him before he would let him by but all the time he was extending his lead.

For a long time, it appeared as if Norris would refuse to carry out the order, but in the end he acquiesced.

The race began in dramatic fashion, with three cars heading into the first corner

Hamilton and Verstappen collide on track

Hamilton and Verstappen’s incident happened on lap 63 as the Red Bull driver dived for the inside at Turn One.

The Dutchman overshot the corner and Hamilton’s front left wheel caught the right rear of Verstappen’s as the Red Bull speared past and into the run-off area.

It was the climax of a bad-tempered race for Verstappen as he railed against Red Bull’s strategy choices, that first put him behind Hamilton and then at the second pit stop also behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen caught and re-passed Leclerc but his anger seemed to spill over into his driving as he tried to pass Hamilton.

It was their second battle of the race - Verstappen had been stuck behind Hamilton in the second stint after making a later first pit stop than the Mercedes driver and failed to get by after a number of attempts.

Verstappen complained about his car’s performance, lack of grip and the team’s pit-stop choices, and when he was chastised by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase for going too hard too soon on his tyres after his final stop, he again swore.

“Don’t give me that now,” he said. “You guys gave me this strategy. I’m trying to rescue my race.”

But he did the opposite and, after the collision, dropped behind Leclerc and was unable to catch the Ferrari.

McLaren one-two overshadowed any team row

Piastri took the lead at the start as he launched off the line better than Norris and got down the inside at Turn One.

They went three-wide around the corner with Verstappen on the outside, and the Dutchman then swept into the run-off area, responding to Piastri jinking slightly left and Norris doing the same, and used a slingshot to pass Norris as he returned to the track.

Norris complained that Verstappen had broken the rules and had to give the place back. Verstappen disagreed but after the stewards said the incident was under investigation, Red Bull advised their driver to cede the place.

Verstappen did so, but responded with the first of a long series of angry messages.

At the front, Piastri seemed in control of the race, extending a lead of more than three seconds before his first stop and then building it to nearly five by lap 32, shortly before half-distance.

But then he ran wide at the fast Turn 11, the lead immediately came down to 2.1 seconds, and Norris began to close in.

Norris held the gap at less than two seconds for 10 laps, until McLaren decided to pit the Briton to ensure he was not ‘undercut’ by Hamilton, who had made his final stop on lap 40.

The risk for McLaren was that Hamilton would close in enough on fresh tyres that Norris would come out behind him when he made his own stop.

So McLaren pitted Norris to protect against this, and then stopped Piastri two laps later.

But this meant that Norris had gained time on his fresh tyres and when Piastri rejoined, he was three seconds behind his team-mate.

The bargaining over who would win the race continued for the next 20 laps until Norris eventually decided his best long-term interests were in doing what he was told.

Behind Verstappen, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took sixth, while the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ George Russell recovered from their starting positions close to the back to take seventh and eighth.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the points positions in ninth and 10th.