Piastri wins his first Grand Prix in Hungary as Norris forced to follow McLaren orders

Lewis Hamilton takes third place as defending champion Max Verstappen faces investigation after collision

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia celebrates after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix, his first Formula One victory, at the Hungaroring racetrack on Sunday, July 21, 2024. AP

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri celebrates on the podium with second-placed teammate Lando Norris. AP

Winner Oscar Piastri celebrates after the race. AFP

McLaren's Oscar Piastri takes the chequered flag. AFP

Race winner Oscar Piastri celebrates with the McLaren team. Getty Images

Oscar Piastri of McLaren celebrates his win. Getty Images

Red Bull's Max Verstappen. AFP

Max Verstappen of Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes fight for track position. Getty Images

McLaren's Oscar Piastri, left, and Lando Norris, centre, battle for the lead with Red Bull's Max Verstappen after the start. AP

Red Bull's Max Verstappen makes a pit stop. EPA

A furious Lando Norris was forced to give up the second Formula One victory of his career after he followed a McLaren team order to allow Oscar Piastri to win a controversial Hungarian Grand Prix.

A mediocre getaway from pole position at the Hungaroring saw Norris drop behind teammate Piastri.

But he was handed an apparent lifeline by McLaren when they pulled him in for his second tyre change two laps earlier than his teammate.

The undercut propelled Norris into the lead, and he held a five-second advantage over Piastri.

However, the Englishman faced a barrage of orders from his race engineer, Will Joseph, to give the place back to Piastri despite his pursuit of Max Verstappen for the world championship.

"I know you'll do the right thing," Norris was told with 14 laps to go after the team repeated that they wanted Piastri to win. "Well you should have pitted him first," he replied.

"Lando, he can't catch you up. You've proved your point," the Briton was told when he moved six seconds clear with six laps remaining.

Norris slowed down on the main straight with three laps left to allow Piastri to take the lead.

“You don’t need to say anything,” he said over the radio. Norris finished one place clear of Lewis Hamilton, with Charles Leclerc fourth and Verstappen fifth.

Hamilton collided with Verstappen on lap 63 of 70 as they duelled for third place with Mercedes accusing the Dutchman of “arriving out of control”. The incident was under investigation by race officials.

Afterwards, Piastri said: "This is very, very special. This is really the day I dreamt of as a kid, standing on the top step of an F1 podium. Thank you to the team for an amazing effort and an amazing car. It's a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren so I can't thank them enough.

"The car is a beast at the moment. It's fast in every condition and today we had it under control completely and it's amazing feeling just to be able to manage a race like that with both cars and secure a one-two."

Norris said: "An amazing day for us as a team and that's the main thing. I'm so happy – it's been and amazing journey to get to achieving this on merit and that's exactly what we did today.

"We did it in style as well so. Congratulations [to Piastri], it was coming at some point and he deserved it today. The team asked me to let him through and I did it, so that's it."

Hamilton said: "Huge congratulations to McLaren on the one-two. Congratulations to Oscar, amazing, he's been doing a fantastic job ever since he got here but he's been so consistent so it was only a matter of time before he got a win.

"For us today the team has done a great job to continue on with pushing this car but, ultimately, we didn't have the pace of the McLarens, nor did we have the pace of the Red Bulls but we were just able to hold on at the beginning of the race and it was very, very tough to hold on and make those tyres last."

On the collision with Verstappen, he said: "Obviously, the close battle we had at the end was a bit hair-raising but that's motor racing so really happy and grateful for the points.

"I saw him coming from a long way back and he was able to brake a lot later than me. But he sent it up the inside I stayed still and he clipped the wheel and went over so I think it's a racing incident."