Norris blames McLaren for awkward situation, but he is "super happy" for Oscar Piastri

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

Having finished second in McLaren's first one-two since the 2021 Monza F1 race, Lando Norris said that he is "super happy" for his team mate Oscar Piastri

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.

Commenting on Piastri's win, Norris said: “Just super happy, I’m happy for Oscar too – I know he won in Qatar [in the Sprint last year], but I think he’ll also say that this win is a lot more than a Sprint win.

"His first proper win, it’s a special moment, so [I’m] happy for him and for the whole team. An incredible weekend for all of us so, yeah, super happy.”

"When pushed on just how difficult his decision-making had been regarding the call to let Piastri past, Norris shared an insight into his emotions and how he eventually realised that he should allow his team mate through.

“It’s tough, but I know what Oscar’s done for me in the past,” the 24-year-old conceded. “I think this is a little bit different but, yeah, at the same time I got told to let him past and I did. It’s always tough when you’re fighting for a win, and a win means so much to me and also to him.

“Yeah, I just had to try put myself in his shoes and understand it that way. Every driver’s selfish and you have to be selfish in this game but, when you’re just thinking of your own benefits, you’re only thinking of the good things. But of course, I put myself in his shoes and I realised I had to do what was right.”

Having led the first half of the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren chose to give Norris the advantage of pitting first at the second and final round of stops, which resulted in the Briton starting the final stint in the lead.

McLaren was aware that it would have been unfair to hand the victory over to Norris with the more advantageous second stop which prompted the pit wall to repeatedly ask the Briton to let Piastri through.

However, Norris initially ignored and protested the order, prompting his race engineer Will Joseph to offer up an incredible series of guilt-tripping messages, urging the 24-year-old to consider the greater good of the team.

Asked about McLaren's strategy, Norris said that it was the team's mistake to establish the awkward situation.

"I think there's just a difference of simply just deserving to win a race and not deserving to win. I didn't deserve to win the race today. Simple as that. So the fact I was in that position was incorrect. I think that was a mistake from us as a team. I shouldn't have been in this position.

"And it was a strategic way to just play our race. So it gave me hope and it gave me that position of, ‘oh, I'm here now’. But I shouldn't have been there in the first place. I'm not going to talk about it because I shouldn't have been there. I didn't deserve to win. End of story from that side.

"But yes, it's something we always talk about before every race is our trust in one another, our honesty we have as a group. I think that's something that's allowed us to catch others so quickly to perform and outperform others so quickly to develop the car quicker.

"As a team, I think we have and have shown plenty of times between drivers, whether it has been Carlos and myself, Daniel and myself, Oscar and myself, that when things do go one another's way, we're there to help one another, you know? And today is a different day. It's not because strategically something's really happened and you're kind of just letting someone pass or something's going that way it’s that I shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

"I shouldn't have been given that hope of I'm here, I'm leading a race. So I don't think it's a fair thing. But of course we're going to discuss it and there's going to be times maybe in the future where things are like that.

"But if Oscar's led the whole race, I don't want him just to... It's not fair, and I don't think that's how it should work, that he should just let me pass for me to win because I'm fighting for a championship. Maybe I'll ask Oscar, maybe he will! Maybe he'd let me pass! But today was his, and that should be it.

"It wasn't my race today. He drove better, and he got a good start, and that was that, so... Yeah, like I said, something we'll speak about as a team and we speak about all the time. Something we're good at and something we'll continue to do good at," concluded Norris.