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Oscar Piastri

Piastri maintaining 'full trust' in Norris after 'complicated' McLaren drama

Oscar Piastri became a Formula 1 race winner on his 35th grand prix appearance.

Piastri Norris Hungary podium
Article
To news overview © XPBimages

Oscar Piastri has insisted that he still has "full trust" in Lando Norris, following McLaren's "complicated" drama in the closing laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix. 

Piastri overtook Norris on the run down to the first corner and led the bulk of the race, before being undercut by his team-mate following the second round of pitstops. Norris was pitted first to cover Lewis Hamilton, something Piastri was aware about. 

Likewise, Piastri was pitted later to cover Max Verstappen but was informed that Norris would return the race lead to him. However, Norris questioned McLaren's instructions for several laps, raising suspicions that the Briton would defy the team and win the race. 

In the end after several stern messages to Norris, he relinquished the lead and the victory to Piastri.  Piastri expects the incident to be discussed internally but understood why he was pitted last.

"I'm sure it's something we'll discuss as a team," Piastri said. "The information I had at the time was Lando was boxing early to cover Lewis, and I was going long to cover Max, essentially, because I knew that he'd stop later, and I think we were just being very safe. 

"Of course, that naturally gave Lando an undercut, maybe made things a little bit more complicated than it needed to be. 

"But yeah, I'm sure that's something we'll go through."

Piastri never 'concerned'

Norris' race engineer informed the 24-year-old to swap positions several times in the closing stages of the race, with the Briton having been informed told: "Lando, to win a championship you will need the team, you will need Oscar."

On lap 68/70, Piastri was allowed past Norris along the start/finish straight, with McLaren having been extremely unfortunate. 

The Woking-based team would have been in trouble had a late safety car been required, as it would have lost the outfit the chance to move Piastri back into the lead. 

Piastri was never worried about the situation but recognised that he returned to the lead later than he would have liked.

"I don't think I was really concerned," said Piastri. "The only thing I was concerned about a bit was if there was a safety car, then it would have taken the situation out of our hands, would have taken the control out of our hands. 

"So that was really the only thing I was a bit concerned about. But we'd spoken about it at the timing of the stop that we would sort it back out. 

"I had full trust in everyone in the team, including Lando, that we would make that happen."

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