McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has shared his thoughts on the painfully close near-miss moment between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
On lap 69 of the 70-lap race at the Hungaroring, the latter lunged down the inside of the former into the apex of Turn 1, locking up the front tyres on his MCL39 and narrowly avoiding contact.
It was the climax of the tense and captivating late-race fight between the pair, as Piastri's conventional two-stop approach converged with Norris' alternate one-stop strategy.
The British driver was ultimately able to hold on, despite having significantly older tyres, to take victory.
In doing so, he cut his team-mate's 16-point lead in the F1 drivers' championship down to just nine points at the summer break.
It was the Woking squad's 200th grand prix win and its fourth-consecutive one-two finish. However, the penultimate lap clash could have ended in tears, both for Norris and McLaren.
Despite that, when asked by RacingNews365 to what extent the near miss was a "heart in the mouth" moment, Stella explained why it was "firm" but "fair" racing between the pair.
"When you have two great drivers like Lando and Oscar who race for a victory Formula 1 grand prix and race for the drivers' championship, it's always going to be very close," the Italian told the select media present.
"But that was firm racing. It was fair racing. At the same time, it was definitely within our principles.
"We had a bit of a lock-up with Oscar. But, at the same time, Lando left some space because he knew that Oscar would have been on the limit of braking."
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The 54-year-old elaborated, expressing his pride for how both McLaren drivers conduct themselves on track, something he believes pays tribute to F1 and the team they race for.
"We keep being very proud of how Lando and Oscar go racing. I think this is a great way of honouring Formula 1 racing - these are the values of McLaren," Stella added.
"It's going to be, hopefully, a matter between the two McLaren drivers, even if we saw Ferrari was in the competition for the victory for two-thirds of the race.
"I think we have a very entertaining and interesting final part of the season [ahead]."
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Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes and Nick Golding, as they dissect the final race before the F1 summer break – the Hungarian Grand Prix!
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