2024 F1 Round 13, Hungarian GP: Piastri takes maiden win amid team orders controversy, McLaren finish one-two, Hamilton claims 200th podium

The race for Round 13 of the 2024 Formula 1 season, the Hungarian Grand Prix, concluded at the Hungaroring on the evening of 21 July China time (UTC+8). McLaren’s Oscar Piastri beat team-mate Lando Norris by 2.141s to claim his maiden Grand Prix victory amid a team orders controversy, becoming the seventh different winner of the season. Norris had to settle for second, while Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished third to become the first driver in history to reach 200 career podiums. RB’s Yuki Tsunoda took ninth with excellent tyre management.

The victory was hard-earned. Piastri passed pole-sitter Norris around the outside at Turn 1 on the opening lap and led for around 70 per cent of the race. The turning point came at the final stops. To counter Hamilton’s earlier stop and protect its one-two, McLaren brought the following Norris in first, allowing him to move ahead of Piastri. The team then repeatedly asked Norris to return the position, but the Briton delayed complying and instead pulled further clear. After a tussle lasting almost 20 laps, Norris’s race engineer Will Joseph told him with six laps remaining: “You can’t win a championship on your own. You need Oscar and you need the team.” With four laps to go came another plea: “Let him through now.” Norris finally slowed, and Piastri regained the lead with three laps remaining.

After the swap, Norris briefly moved within DRS range of Piastri, but the Australian extended the gap beyond a second before the final lap and took the flag 2.141s ahead. It was McLaren’s first one-two finish since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. Piastri admitted afterwards that the long delay in following the team orders had left him “nervous”, while Norris said simply: “The team asked me to do it, so I did. That’s it.”

Verstappen’s race was full of frustration. He ran off the track at Turn 1 on the opening lap and passed Norris for second, then returned the position on lap four to avoid a penalty. He subsequently complained over the radio that the brakes were not working, he could not turn in and both the front and rear tyres felt poor. Hamilton undercut him at the first stops, dropping him to fourth, and Leclerc did the same at the second stops later in the race, prompting an angry denunciation of the strategy. Verstappen finally passed Leclerc with 14 laps remaining, then collided with Hamilton while attacking down the inside of Turn 1 with eight laps to go. His rear wheels were briefly lifted into the air, allowing Leclerc to pass him again. Verstappen finished fifth, 21.349s behind the winner.

Perez, who had crashed in qualifying, started 16th and used impressive pace over two medium-tyre stints to finish seventh and collect six points, 18.443s behind his team-mate. Russell, starting 17th, finished eighth. Tsunoda was the only driver to make a one-stop strategy work, using outstanding tyre management to move from 10th on the grid to ninth and take two points. His team-mate Ricciardo finished 12th, one lap down. Stroll took the final point for Aston Martin, while Alpine’s Gasly retired on lap 33.

The race covered 70 laps, with the winner’s time recorded as 1h38m01.989s. Piastri’s maiden victory also made him the next Australian Grand Prix winner after Ricciardo’s success at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.