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.
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Listen in on the radio messages from McLaren throughout 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.
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Listen to the heated radio messages exchanged after the Hungarian Grand Prix race start
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.
The Hamilton-Verstappen incident is under a post-race investigation by stewards.
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.
More to follow…
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