Piastri was sure Norris hands back the lead as he reflects on his emotional first F1 triumph

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri took an emotional first Formula One victory as yesterday's Hungarian Grand Prix, leading McLaren's 49th one-two finish, the first one since Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris secured a double victory for the Woking-based outfit in the 2021 Monza F1 round.

Starting from P2 on the grid, Oscar Piastri had a better start than his team mate and squeezed through into the lead on the inside into Turn 1.

The opening stint saw Piastri controlling the race and the gap to his team mate through the first round of pit stops. But come the second round, the team opted to call Norris in first, which allowed him to undercut Piastri for the lead of the race. Ostensibly, that decision was made to cover off any threat from behind, but it left the team in an awkward position.

McLaren asked Norris repeatedly to cede the lead to his team mate – but Piastri was now four seconds behind. Much cajoling on the radio ensued, until Norris finally slowed down to give the lead back, so that Piastri could claim a maiden F1 win.

Asked about his feelings after his first win in Formula One, Piastri noted: "Very, very special. A lot of Australian flags, actually, which was very cool to see. Yeah, it was an incredible moment. I mean, it's always special when you get to stand on an F1 podium, but it's a little bit nicer when you're at the top of it, so very happy.

"Like I said, an incredible moment that I've been dreaming of for a very long time. I said my first dream in my career was reaching F1. The second one is winning a race.

"I'm very, very happy and proud and not just of myself, but everybody that's helped me get to this position. You know, going back to my family, firstly, of course. You know, it took a lot of big decisions at a young age to chase the F1 dream.

"It's very difficult to become an F1 driver by staying in Australia, so it meant some big decisions early in life. And, yeah, just very, very proud that, you know, those decisions have paid off and we've managed to make it worth it. And, yeah, of course, myself just incredibly happy to have achieved this moment.

Although Piastri has already won a race last year, it was a triumph in the Qatar Sprint. He claimed that his sprint victory was a "bit awkward" given the nature of the 100km dash.

"Very, I would say. I think the Sprint win… It was always a bit awkward, in my opinion. It's a win, but not really a win. This is much more of a proud moment for me than winning the Sprint.

"Of course, it was a special moment at the time, but now to have no questions, no question marks over whether I'm a race winner or not is a very nice feeling to have. And yeah, the emotion is definitely different.

"I don't think I was really concerned. The only thing I was concerned about a bit was if there was a Safety Car, then it would have taken the situation out of our hands, would have taken the control out of our hands.

"So that was really the only thing I was a bit concerned about. But, you know, we'd spoken about it at the timing of the stop that we would sort it back out. And, yeah, I mean, I had full trust in everyone in the team, including Lando, that we would make that happen," Piastri concluded.

Piastri confirmed that Norris was handed the better strategy with the earlier second stop to cover Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the race.

"I mean, I'm sure it's something we'll discuss as a team. You know, the information I had at the time was Lando was boxing early to cover Lewis, and I was going long to cover Max, essentially, because I knew that he'd stop later, and I think we were just being very safe.

"Of course, that naturally gave Lando an undercut, maybe made things a little bit more complicated than it needed to be. But yeah, I'm sure that's something we'll go through," he said.