Oscar Piastri claimed his first Formula 1 Grand Prix career win with victory over McLaren team mate Lando Norris, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton joining them on the podium in Hungary.
But the race ended in controversy. Having lost the lead to Piastri at the start, Norris regained control during the final pit stops only to be told by the team to hand it back to Piastri, which he resisted almost to the bitter end.
There was also disharmony at Red Bull, with an irate Max Verstappen ending up in fifth after clashing with Hamilton. But it was a good recovery for team mate Sergio Perez, who was P7 having overcome his spin in qualifying.
Sunny intervals and light winds graced the Hungaroring on Sunday afternoon as the cars headed to the grid. There had been some consternation at McLaren about pole sitter Lando Norris' car when the driver reported that there was "something definitely not right with the throttle", but Norris launched off the grid when the lights went out.
Despite starting on the dirty side of the grid, Piastri did not hold back and immediately went three-wide into turn 1 to force his way down the inside of Norris and Max verstappen to take the lead. Verstappen was forced wide but rejoined ahead of Norris; Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh behind Fernando Alonso, promoting Lewis Hamilton to P4 and Charles Leclerc up to fifth.
Traffic over the McLaren and Red Bull team radios about Verstappen gaining an unfair advantage by going off at the first corner was even more intense than the traffic on track. In the end, Red Bull played it safe and ordered Verstappen to hand the place back - which he did, grudgingly.
A number of cars started making their first pit stops as early as lap 6, suggesting three-stop strategies. Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon were among the first to switch from mediums to the hard compound. That helped George Russell, Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly (who had all been out of position on the grid and opted to start on the hard tyres) to inch toward the top ten.
There was no corresponding move from the front runners. Piastri pulled out a 3s lead over Norris by lap 11 while Verstappen fell back from the McLarens, struggling to stay out of DRS range of Hamilton. The Mercedes was in on lap 17 in the hope of the undercut, Norris responding on lap 19 having been told by his race engineer that "we believe our race is with Verstappen" for third rather than with Piastri for the win.
Despite Verstappen complaining about his tyres, Verstappen didn't pit until lap 22. It wasn't the fastest service and he came back out in fifth between Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda, a net loss of one place. The Ferraris also went long, but Piastri was soon back in the lead from Norris, Hamilton third with 5s in hand over Verstappen, and Leclerc dropping back to fifth.
Perez finally pitted on lap 30 for mediums and dropped to P15. Yuki Tsunoda had gone just as long one-stopping with a starter set of mediums. Last to come in was Russell on lap 35 who came back out in 11th, Gasly having retired with a suspected hydraulic leak on the Alpine.
Hamilton's pace quickly declined giving his pursuers a taste of blood in the water. Verstappen, Leclerc and Sainz all picked up the pace on fresher tyres. The Red Bull closed to within DRS range of the Mercedes and made its move into turn 2 on lap 36, but Verstappen couldn't hold the line and went wide allowing Hamilton to live to fight another day.
Hamilton continued to thwart Verstappen who grew increasingly frustrated with the situation, as Leclerc rapidly entered the fray from the rear. Hamilton and Leclerc finally pitted in tandem on lap 41, Hamilton going for the hard tyres and Leclerc the mediums, coming back out P5 and P6 respectively. Once again exposing a fuming Verstappen to the undercut.
Despite having run wide and losing two seconds to Norris, Piastri was told it was too early for them to stop. Instead it was Norris who was called in first on lap 45 to protect against Hamilton, rather than undercut Piastri. But it didn't work out like that: by the time Piastri had a slow service on lap 48 the advantage had swung to the Briton who was now in the lead. An error by Piastri allowed Norris to extend the gap.
McLaren assured Piastri that they would "manage the situation", explaining: "Once you get to Lando we will swap the positions, but we want to avoid Lando giving up a lot of race time." Norris was pointedly quiet over the radio, to the point that the team requested a comms check. When he did respond he made his disagreement clear: he saw no reason to cede the position. The team switched to increasingly emotional messages cajoling him into line. Norris pressed on regardless and grew his lead to six seconds.
Also on a charge was Verstappen, who was hunting down Hamilton and Leclerc on fresh mediums. He quickly dispatched the Ferrari, but Hamilton thwarted him again and again. Verstappen saw red and went too deep into turn 1 on lap 63 and there was contact that briefly launched the Red Bull into the air. Miraculously both cars survived, but Verstappen was now back behind Leclerc.
Norris finally acceded to McLaren's increasingly desperate pleas, and with three laps to go he slowed enough to allow Piastri to catch and pass him to retake the lead. Hamilton coasted to third ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, with Sainz sixth ahead of solid recovery drives from Perez and Russell. RB's Yuki Tsunoda and Aston's Lance Stroll rounded out the points.
It was all smiles on the podium, but the tempestuous debriefings in the McLaren and Red Bull motorhomes will be a sight to behold.
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The post Hungary: Piastri clinches controversial maiden GP win appeared first on F1i.com.
