Oscar Piastri wins dramatic Hungarian GP after McLaren team orders

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Oscar Piastri claimed the first win of his Formula One career, but only after McLaren teammate Lando Norris obeyed a team order to let him past with two laps to go.

The fifth Australian to win a grand prix seized the lead from pole-sitter Norris at the start as Max Verstappen took second with a short-cut after being forced wide.

Verstappen had to give the place back as stewards' investigated and Piastri was ahead until Norris came in for his second stop to cover against Hamilton, with Piastri staying out and losing out.

McLaren told Norris to re-establish the order "at his convenience" with more than 20 laps remaining but the gap between only grew larger and the Briton showed no sign of complying.

McLaren spent the final quarter of the race pleading with Norris to slow down and move over. For a while it looked like Norris would overrule his team and the TV feed was served to 15 laps of remarkable exchanges between the English driver and his race engineer, Will Joseph.

"I know you'll do the right thing," Norris was told.

"Well you should have pitted him first," he replied.

"Lando, he can't catch you up. You've proved your point," Joseph said, when Norris moved six seconds clear with six laps remaining.

"The way to win a championship is not by yourself. You're going to need Oscar, and you're going to need the team," Joseph said again.

Norris eventually slowed on lap 68 of 70 to allow Piastri by for the lead but his brief defiance and the fact McLaren allowed themselves to get into that situation will create a huge talking point ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix next week.

While a controversial one-two for McLaren, it saw the team claim maximum points on a weekend a frustrated Max Verstappen and Red Bull struggled.

Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

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Norris said after the race: "It was an amazing day for us as a team, that's the main thing. It's been a long journey to achieving this on merit and a long way clear of the rest so we did it in style. Of course to Oscar -- he got a good start, he had me off the line and controlled the race well, it was coming at some point and he deserved it today."

When asked he felt on the team orders, Norris said bluntly: "The team asked me to do it and I did it so, yeah."

Meanwhile, Piastri said the win is what he's dreamed of: "Very very special, this is the day I dreamed of as a kid, standing on top of an F1 podium. It was complicated at the end, but I put myself in the right position to start and thank you for the team for an amazing car. It's a hell of a lot of fun racing in F1 with McLaren and to win together after 18 months is an incredible feeling."

He added: "[The car] it's a beast at the moment, it's fast every condition. Today we had it under control and it's amazing feeling to manage the race like that and secure a one-two. I'm incredibly happy for the whole team."

Asked if he was worried Norris wouldn't move over, he said: "The longer you leave it, the more you get a bit nervous, it was well executed by the team. It was the right thing and I put myself in the right position at the start and with the different strategy I probably wasn't as quick as I would've liked, but I was still in the right position to make it happen."

Verstappen also spent most of the race engaged in tetchy exchanges with his race engineer, Gianpietro Lambiase, about an early clash with Norris and about what he felt had been strategy blunders by his team.

F1 then saw a flashback to 2021 as Verstappen and old title rival Hamilton collided when the Red Bull driver lunged from far back in a bid to take the final spot on the podium. Verstappen avoided major damage but had to settle for fifth position.

Hamilton, with his third podium of the year, applauded his former team after the race, "A big thanks to this amazing crowd this weekend and huge congratulations to McLaren on the one-two -- I'm really happy to see the whole team back upfront."

He added: "Mercedes have done a great job to continue pushing this car, we didn't have the pace of McLaren or Red Bull but we were able to hold on at the beginning of the race and make those tyres last.

"I'm really happy, grateful for the points, so thank you to the team. and Congratulations to Oscar, he's done an amazing job, it was only a matter of time before he got a win."

Formula One heads to Belgium next week for the final race before the summer break.

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.