Oscar Piastri finished the Hungarian GP second to teammate Lando Norris after an intense last lap battle.
The championship leader was unable to get the move done on Norris in the final laps of the race, with the alternative one-stop strategy working in favour of the Briton. Speaking to the media in Parc Ferme, Piastri said that he pushed as hard as he could but ultimately, overtaking at the Hungaroring is ‘easier said than done’.
“Yeah, I pushed as hard as I could. You know, I think after I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track. Which is much easier said than done around here. So, yeah, tried a few things.
“You know, it was a gamble either way. And today, unfortunately, we were just on the wrong side of it. So the team did a great job. The car really came alive in the second half of the race. And, yeah, the car’s been great all weekend. So thank you to the team, and, yeah, looking forward to a couple weeks off.”
One-stop strategy lead the way
Piastri wasn’t surprised by his teammates strategy call at the Hungarian GP. He agreed that at that point in the race, Norris didn’t have much to lose. After a poor race start that saw him lose positions to Russell and Alonso, the alternative strategy ended up being a good gamble to take the win. Especially as Piastri, Russell, and Leclerc all made two pit stops.
“I mean, at that point, you didn’t really have much to lose, so it wasn’t a huge surprise. Yeah, I don’t know if trying to undercut Leclerc was the right call in the end. But we can go through it after.”
“I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer. Which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. And, you know, I felt like that was going to be my best chance. You know, you never want to try and save it for the next lap, and then it never comes. So I thought I would at least try, and, yeah, not quite.”
Norris’ win at the Hungarian GP marks the 200th Grand Prix victory for McLaren. It is also their 4th consecutive 1-2 finish since the Austrian Grand Prix. Piastri continues to lead the Driver’s Championship into the summer break by just 9 points over Norris, and McLaren lead the Constructor’s Championship by a massive 299 points over Ferrari.
