The Hungarian GP has been McLaren’s show through and through! With the win within his grabs, Lando Norris showed exemplary character as he conceded the lead to Oscar Piastri in the name of team spirit. The papaya army managed to get both its racers into the top 2 spots on the starting grid during Qualifying. And then the Aussie took over the lead from his teammate in a surprise move at the start of the Main Race. But right behind the two McLarens, Lewis Hamilton has been a looming force. To eliminate any risk of the Mercedes undercutting the orange-clad racers and stealing away a place in the top 2, Zak Brown’s team asked Lando Norris to pit for fresher tires.

Once Norris came out after a quick pitstop, it was Oscar Piastri who pitted. But when the Melbourne native came out, he was no longer leading the pack. Norris had gone past his McLaren partner and the team assured Piastri they would get the Briton to swap places. At lap 50, the papaya team started making noises to ask Lando Norris to hand over the leading spot at Hungaroring. A few laps down the line, Norris’ race engineer Will Joseph left the decision to him to decide whether he would allow Piastri to win in Hungary by saying, “I know you’ll do the right thing.”

On the World Drivers’ Championship, Lando Norris is currently behind Max Verstappen by only 84 points. At a time like this, the Miami GP winner knows he needs every point that he can get. As he hesitated to give the place back to Piastri, his team called on to him on the radio, “Piastri can’t catch up with you now. You’ve proved your point“, imploring him to listen to the team’s advice. Even then, Lando turned a deaf ear to all of it as he went on leading the laps. And ultimately, his engineer said, “Only 5 laps left. The way to win the Championship is with the team. You can’t win it by yourself, you’re gonna need us.” And with that, Lando finally conceded to his teammate with only two laps to go, making sure the 23-year-old got his first-ever Grand Prix victory.

With the roaring win at the Hungaroring, Oscar Piastri has now joined the club of legends like Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, and Nelson Piquet Sr who had also won in Budapest. The young prodigy is now the 115th F1 Grand Prix winner and he has also helped McLaren go past Ferrari on the Championship table. So, what did the Aussie have to say after perhaps the best evening of his career?

Oscar Piastri claims Lando Norris did “the right thing”

Oscar Piastri might have gone past his teammate at the start of the Hungarian GP. But towards the end, he lost the lead. And then, it all depended upon Lando Norris to decide whether closing the gap to Max was sweeter to him than conceding to Oscar to maintain good team dynamics. Speaking on the nerves he felt during the moments when Lando pondered upon his decision, Piastri said, “The longer you leave it [to switch], the more you get a bit nervous.“

When asked if he believed his teammate did the right thing by giving away the Hungarian GP victory to him, the Aussie said, “Yeah, I think it was the right thing, I put myself in the right position at the start and yes, my pace wasn’t what I wanted in the last stint but well managed by the team.”

The Hungarian GP marked the second last race on the F1 roster before the summer break began. At this crucial juncture, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s joint effort has helped McLaren get further on the road to a World Championship win. While Red Bull had an upsetting weekend with Verstappen clashing with Hamilton and Perez barely making it into the top 10, do you think there is a chance that McLaren will win the Constructors’ Cup? Share your opinions in the comments below.