Formula 1 News: Piastri wins 2024 Hungarian GP for 1st victory

McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris dominated the 2024 Hungarian GP at the Hungaroring to finish 1-2 ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Australian Piastri finished 1.756s ahead of Norris, but not before Norris was instructed by his team to let Piastri past because they made Piastri lose his lead to Norris by pitting Norris first on the final pitstop. Piastri took the lead at the start of the race and held it until the final pitstops.

Things were a tad frosty over the airwaves between Norris and his race engineer. That arguably isn’t how Piastri would have wanted to win his first race. And it was the team’s strategy calls that put both him and Norris in an awkward position.

“Very, very special. This is the day I dreamed of as a kid, standing on the top step of the podium. A bit complicated at the end, but I put myself in a good position off the start,” said Piastri.

“[The car] is a beast at the moment, fast in every conditions. To secure a 1-2, I don’t know when our last 1-2 was, but a long time ago.

“The longer you leave it [to switch], the more you get a bit nervous but 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.”

“Amazing day for us as a team, that’s the main thing,” said Norris. “A long journey to achieving this on merit, and a long way clear of the rest. Oscar got me off the line, it’s been coming and he deserved it today.

“The team asked me to do it so I did it, that’s it.”

Hamilton finished a distant 1.880s behind and survived a late scare from contact with Max Verstappen who tried to out brake Hamilton in Turn 1 but locked up and went flying into the air as he ran over the right front tire of Hamilton.

That enabled Charles Leclerc to pass Verstappen for 4th and finish 19.686s behind.

Max Verstappen rounded out the top-5 for Red Bull but he may get a penalty for the contact with Hamilton so the final results are still in question.

“Big thanks to this amazing crowd and a huge congratulations to McLaren on the 1-2, my old, original family – I’m so happy to see you guys back at the front<” said Hamilton.

“Ultimately, we didn’t have the race of the McLarens or the Bulls, but we were just able to hold on and that close battle at the end was a bit hair-raising, but that’s racing. When you see the pace they closed the gap, you just laughed as that’s just not something I can do. He sent it up the inside, I stayed still – I think it’s a racing incident.

“Congratulations to Oscar, he’s done a fantastic job since he got here to be honest, and it was only a matter of time before he got a win.”

Sergio Perez finished a credible seventh ahead of George Russell, with Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll rounding out the points.

With Red Bull faltering Norris has closed the points gap down to 76 points behind Verstappen, 265 to 189 with Leclerc lurking in third with 162 points.

2024 Hungarian GP Race Results