Race Notes - Piastri takes first win

By Mark Karp

Oscar Piastri in the McLaren-Mercedes won the Hungarian Grand Prix, his first win in Formula One.

His team mate pole sitter Lando Norris was second, 2.141 seconds behind. Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes GP finished third, 14.880 seconds behind the winner.

The win was controversial, as Piastri lost the lead on the second pitstop, but then the team continued to tell Norris to swap the positions for the lead, although Norris has gotten out to a 6 second lead.

Piastri took his maiden Grand Prix victory in his 35 F1 start, and he is the 115th Grand Prix winner. Piastri is the seventh winner of the season.

With his third place Hamilton took his 200th podium position.

Charles Leclerc (19.686s) in the Ferrari was fourth, followed by Max Verstappen (21.349s) in the Red Bull-Honda in fifth, Carlos Sainz (23.073s) in the second Ferrari was sixth, Sergio Perez (39.792s) in the second Red Bull was seventh, George Russell (42,638s) in the second Mercedes was eighth, Yuki Tsunoda (1m17.259s) in the RB-Honda was ninth, and Lance Stroll (1,17.976s) in the Aston Martin-Mercedes took the final point.

Before the start, Norris sits on pole with his McLaren team mate Piastri alongside, the first McLaren front row in 12 years, Verstappen and Sainz on row 2, Hamilton and Leclerc on row 3, team mates Alonso and Stroll on row 4. The RB’s Ricciardo and Tsunoda rounding out the top ten. The top twelve on medium tyres except for the two Aston Martin’s on soft tyres. Perez and Russell on hard tyres.

At the appointed time the grid cleared and the drivers took to the formation lap. The drivers lined up on the grid, the lights went out and the race began with Norris and Piastri are side by side into the first corner, Piastri takes the lead, Verstappen goes wide on the corner.

At lap 3, Piastri leads Verstappen, Norris, Hamilton, Leclerc, Sainz. Alonso, Stroll, Albon, and Magnussen in tenth.

Red Bull is worried that they need to let Norris by after the first corner were he got past him off track.

On lap 4 Verstappen lets Norris past for second place.

At lap 6 Piastri leads Norris by 2.4 seconds.

On lap 7 Albon, Magnussen and Ocon all pit for hard tyres.

On lap 8 Alonso pits for medium tyres, Ricciardo and Zhou pit for hard tyres.

On lap 9 Sargeant pits for hard tyres.

At lap 10 Piastri leads Norris by 2.7 seconds, followed by Verstappen (4.7s), Hamilton 6.0s), Leclerc (7.1s), Sainz (11.2s), Stroll (18.6s), Tsunoda (21.3s), Bottas (23.7s), and Russell (24.5s) in tenth, Perez (25.6s) is11th.

Piastri is increasing his lead by 0.2 per lap over his team mate Norris, and leads him by 3.3 seconds.

On lap 15 Stroll pits from seventh for medium tyres and rejoins 16th.

On lap 16 Hamilton pits from fourth for hard tyres and rejoins seventh behind Tsunoda. Bottas pits from ninth for hard tyres and rejoins 18th.

On lap 17 Norris pits from second for hard tyres and rejoins fifth.

Hamilton passes Tsunoda for sixth,

On lap 19 Piastri pits from the lead for hard tyres and rejoins fourth, ahead of Norris.

Hamilton sets fast lap at 1m23.350s.

At lap 20 Verstappen leads Leclerc bu 3.4 seconds, followed by Sainz (8.2s), Piastri (11.2s), Norris (13.4s), Hamilton (15.6s), Tsunoda (21.6s), Russell (25.0s), Perez (26.3s), and Gasly (35.4s) in tenth.

On lap 21 Verstappen pits from the lead for hard tyres and rejoins fifth behind Hamilton. Sainz pits for hard and rejoins ninth.

On lap 23 Hamilton sets another fast lap at 1m23.180s.

Leclerc, still yet to pit, leads over Piastri by 4.3 seconds.

On lap 24 Leclerc pits for hard tyres and reloins fifth.

Verstappen sets fast lap at 1m22.769s.

Piastri retakes the lead by 3.1 seconds over his team mate Norris.

Verstappen is closing on Hamilton, and trails him by 4.6 seconds.

Sainz passes Tsunoda for sixth at the first corner.

On lap 26 Piastri sets fast lap at 1m22.654s.

Alonso passes Hulkenberg for 11th.

Williams tell Albon, who is 14th, they need to go to plan B.

On lap 29 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m22.359s, and again the next lap at 1m22.187s.

Perez pits from ninth for medium tyres and rejoins 15th.

Verstappen has closed to 1.9 seconds behind Hamilton.

Tsunoda pits for hard tyres and rejoins tenth.

On lap 33 Perez passes Tsunoda for tenth.

On lap 34 Verstappen tries to pass Hamilton, goes wide and Hamilton retakes the position.

At lap 35, at the halfway point, Piastri leads Norris by 1.6 seconds, followed by Hamilton (8.0s), Verstappen (8.9), Leclerc (11.1s), Sainz (20.2s), Alonso (51.5s), Perez (52.4s), Stroll (53.5s), and Tsunoda (57.3s) In tenth,

On lap 37 Russell passes Tsunoda for tenth.

On lap 38 Alonso pits for hard tyres and rejoins 13th.

Russell passes Stroll for eighth.

Piastri goes wide off the track, but continues - Norris closing up.

Piastri leads Norris by 1.3 seconds, McLaren tells the drivers they are free to race.

Hamilton continues to be chased by Verstappen, Leclerc is starting to close on the two.

On lap 41 Hamilton and Leclerc both pit, Hamilton for hard, Leclerc for medium, they rejoin fifth and sixth.

On lap 45 Ricciardo passes Bottas for 12th

On lap 45 Norris pits for medium tyres and rejoins in fourth ahead on Hamilton.

On lap 48 Piastri pits from the lead for medium tyres and rejoins third behind Norris.

Sainz pits for medium tyres and rejoins sixth. Perez pits for medium tyres

Norris sets fast lap at 1m21.954s.

McLaren tells their drivers that they need to re-establish the prior positions.

On lap 50 Verstappen pits for medium tyres and rejoins fifth.

At lap 50 Norris leads Piastri by 3.6 seconds, followed by Hamilton (8.8s), Leclerc (10.1s), Verstappen (14.4s), Sainz (20.8s), Russell (27.4s), Perez (40.5s), Tsunoda (52.3s), and Alonso (57.2s) in tenth place.

On lap 51 Verstappen sets fast lap at 1m20.908s.

On lap 53 McLaren tells Norris to save the tyres on the final corner.

Verstappen is closing on Leclerc in fourth.

On lap 54 Russell pits for hard tyres and rejoins in eighth.

On lap 56 Norris leads Piastri by 3.3 seconds.

Russell sets fast lap at 1m20.305s.

On lap 57 Verstappen passes Leclerc into the first corner for fourth place.

McLaren tells Norris, “we still feel you are using the tyres too much, Oscar is 3.5, we know you will do the right thing.”

On lap 60 McLaren still is giving Norris the message to slow down, Norris has stretched his lead to 4.8 seconds.

Norris responds, "Yeah, tell him to catch up then please.”

Verstappen closes on Hamilton.

On lap 62 Verstappen gets side by side with Hamilton in turn 2 but can’t get by.

On lap 63 Verstappen tries to get by Hamilton in the DRS at turn 1 and dives down the inside out of control, the two touch and Verstappen goes off track and Leclerc passes for fourth.

Verstappen is complaining on the radio saying that Hamilton moved under braking, and the team says not to complain on the radio, that it is “childish on the radio”, and let the stewards figure it out.

On lap 63 McLaren tells Norris, “Lando he can’t catch you up, you proved your point, and it really doesn’t matter”, Norris replies “he is on much quicker tyres”.

At lap 65 Norris leads Piastri by 6.0 seconds, followed by Hamilton (20.2s), Leclerc (23.9s), Verstappen (26.0s), Sainz (27.5s), Perez (43.7s), Russell (46.5s), Tsunoda (1m16.5s), and Stroll (1m18.6s) in tenth place.

On lap 66 McLaren says, “There are five laps to go, the way to win a championship is not by yourself, it is with team - your going to need Oscar, and your going to need the team."

On lap 68 Norris slows and lets Piastri back into the lead.

Norris says, “You don’t need to say anything."

At the finish Piastri takes his first win over Norris and Hamilton.