However, radio messages from Lando Norris will raise questions about how harmonious things are in the papaya team's garage. A strategic call to pit the Brit ahead of Piastri led to awkward exchanges that verged on emotional pleading, somewhat overshadowing the occasion.
McLaren wasn't the only team dealing with public driver drama. Max Verstappen put Red Bull Racing to the test in Budapest, repeatedly venting his frustration at their strategy calls. He even collided with 2021 title rival Lewis Hamilton to add further annoyance on another day in 2024 when the reigning champion failed to reach the podium.
Piastri's triumph marks F1's fourth winner in four races as the competitiveness of the sport has reached its potential in 2024. The man from Melbourne started the race alongside polesitter Norris in a McLaren front-row lockout. Only 0.046s separated the two drivers plus P3-starting Verstappen in qualifying, and the trio continued that tightness into the opening lap.
A super start had Piastri alongside his teammate on the run into Turn 1, while Verstappen's launch left Norris sandwiched in the middle. Piastri's tighter line had him punch through to take the lead. Norris, however, had to fend off Verstappen, who took to the run-off area and returned to the track in P2. Hamilton, who had jumped from P5 on the grid, hounded Norris at Turn 2, too, but the McLaren fended off the Mercedes to retain P3.
In a sample of things to come, feisty radio messages between the Red Bull pit wall and Verstappen's cockpit fired across the airwaves. The team recommended their driver return the position to Norris, having kept it with all four wheels off the road. Verstappen argued but relented and let the McLaren driver through on Lap 4. A McLaren 1-2 resumed, but Piastri was already out of DRS range, stopping Norris from closing in.
In the crowded midfield fight, tyre strategy proved tricky to perfect. Nico Hulkenberg's Haas waited just two laps to swap to Pirelli's Hard compound in a bid to make positions. His early stop triggered a wave of other drivers to start their second stint before the lap counter reached double digits. Those decisions would've delighted George Russell and Sergio Perez, who both suffered poor qualifications and made up positions by going long in their first Hard-tyre run with clean air.
Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners to stop as he tried to undercut those in front. The decision from Mercedes worked, and he emerged in front of Verstappen by the time the Red Bull pitted. Battling for P3, Hamilton and Verstappen went wheel-to-wheel with some elbows-out racing, and Hamilton retained the position under intense pressure from the Dutchman. Verstappen complained that he couldn't turn his car despite changing his brake bias, then got even more frustrated when his team didn't undercut Mercedes during the race's second stops.
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Ferrari, too, got the jump on Red Bull by stopping Charles Leclerc earlier than Verstappen in the final round of tyre swaps. Leclerc, who has struggled since his Monaco win, had a strong showing in Hungary and inched up to the Hamilton-Verstappen fight earlier on. He pitted alongside Hamilton to gain time on Verstappen, forcing the three-time champion to fall behind the Ferrari, too. On-track overtakes would be necessary should Verstappen want a podium finish.
Those final stops proved troublesome for McLaren, too, with the team choosing to pit Norris ahead of Piastri. They explained that this was to cover off Hamilton from the undercut, though McLaren's pace was far better than Mercedes'. This decision proved costly, as Piastri returned to the track in P2, behind Norris, through no fault of his own. The final 25 laps became a question of whether Norris would let Piastri back into P1.
While McLaren negotiated with Norris to relinquish the lead, Verstappen was shooting venom at his race engineer for letting him slip behind for a second time. Expletive-filled radio messages had Verstappen claiming he was "trying to rescue what's left" of the race after his team gave him a "**** strategy". Nonetheless, he soon cruised to Leclerc's rear wing and used DRS to get to P4 down into Turn 1. As he began closing the gap to Hamilton, Norris kept extending his advantage in P1, much to McLaren's frustration.
Verstappen's pace advantage on Pirelli's Medium tyres soon had the Red Bull arrive behind Hamilton again. The Red Bull made its move as the pair lapped Alex Albon down the start-finish straight, but Verstappen couldn't slow the car down for Turn 1. He locked up his front wheels on the inside line, and Hamilton turned in while the Dutchman continued screeching forward.
Contact between the two had Verstappen going airborne and bouncing into the run-off area. He fell behind Leclerc and would finish in P5, with the stewards deeming the crash with Hamilton a racing incident in a dramatic conclusion to the race. Hamilton would hang onto P3, with his Mercedes somehow undamaged, as Leclerc took P4, his best position since winning in Monte Carlo.
Out front, Norris let his team off the hook as he began Lap 68 of 70. He slowed down to let Piastri through, handing him the lead and settling for P2. Post-race interviews had Norris claim he always would stand down, suggesting he was proving a point to his team by delaying. Whether true or not, McLaren took a 1-2 victory, and his hesitation made 2024 see another memorable race. The Belgian GP comes this weekend with F1 heading to Spa-Francorchamps in a remarkably healthy state.