Norris team order call 'difficult' with 'racer' mentality

Valtteri Bottas can understand the difficulty Lando Norris was faced with when ordered by McLaren to give up the possibility of a Hungarian Grand Prix victory for team-mate Oscar Piastri.

For many laps, after the second round of pit stops at the Hungaroring in which Norris inherited the lead from Piastri, it appeared as if the Briton would not play the team game and hand the position back as the Australian was informed would happen.

It was not until three laps from the finish, and until Norris was reminded of his responsibilities to McLaren and the knock-on effect his non-compliance would have that he finally decided to allow Piastri to pass. He later stated it was always his intention.

Bottas knows what Norris went through on Sunday. In the 2018 Russian Grand Prix, Mercedes ordered him to move aside for Lewis Hamilton to allow him to claim a victory that aided him in his title fight with Sebastian Vettel.

Asked by RacingNews365 in the post-race media pen at the Hungaroring about what unfolded at McLaren during the race, Bottas replied: "It's difficult, you know. Everyone here is a racer, and here to win.

"I don't know the background but there are always certain rules within teams. There are certain scenarios where you need to play it for the team. In the end, the team comes first in this sport."

Bottas had to settle for a lowly 16th by the chequered flag in Budapest, and that after running in the points early on in a Stake that at least showed promise on occasion following the introduction of a raft of upgrades, albeit on his car only.

The 34-year-old, though, can still see limitations with the car, which he feels will be exposed further at this weekend's final grand prix before the summer break in Belgium.

"We tried to offset a little bit with the strategy to have fresher tyres than the competition for stints two and three, but couldn't really make enough progress and got stuck behind some cars," he said.

"But seeing the bigger picture, pace-wise, we're not in the top 10. That's a fact, although I still feel like we were in a bit of a better place than in the previous events.

"It feels like we've made a step but we still need to keep making steps, and especially in the high-speed corners. That's why Spa could be a bit tricky, but we need to keep working on that."