Sun. Nov 10th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Oscar Piastri beats teammate Lando Norris for maiden Formula One victory after contentious team order drama at McLaren.

Oscar Piastri claimed his maiden Formula One victory when he finished ahead of his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, after a vexed radio argument produced an extraordinary finish to an incident-filled Hungarian Grand Prix.

In a motorsports race of fluctuating fortunes and many quarrels on and off the track, the McLaren duo secured a comprehensive one-two on Sunday after starting from the team’s first front-row lockout since 2012, with Norris finally obeying team orders to hand his teammate his first career win.

Piastri, 23, won by 2.141 seconds with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finishing third for Mercedes to claim his record 200th podium finish.

On lap 63, Hamilton survived a dramatic late collision with Red Bull’s three-time champion and series leader Max Verstappen, who flew off, but recovered to finish fifth.

Charles Leclerc came home fourth and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz sixth, sandwiching a grumpy Verstappen, who was called to see the stewards to explain his collision with Hamilton.

“It’s very special,” said Australian driver Piastri.

“I dreamt of this as a kid and if it was a bit complicated at the end, I did put myself in the right position at the start of the race.

“It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren. This is an incredible feeling.”

Norris was first to congratulate his teammate after he had appeared to reject team orders and allow the Australian to pass in the closing stages.

It was McLaren’s first 1-2 since Monza 2021.

Verstappen still comfortably leads the Drivers’ Championship with 269 points. Norris is next-best with 189 points.

Three F1 drivers go around corner at same time during race.
From left: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia, McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain, and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands lead the field after the start of the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix [Denes Erdos/AP]

Source link