Oscar Piastri has said he held “full trust” in McLaren team-mate Lando Norris to return him the lead as he took his maiden Formula 1 win at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Piastri executed a storming launch to seize the inside line at the start and come out on top in a three-wide battle with Norris and Max Verstappen at the opening turn.
The Australian proceeded to open up a sustainable advantage and was then controlling the race until a wide moment at Turn 11 then allowed Norris to close back up.
However, McLaren then negotiated Norris into the lead as he was pitted two laps earlier than Piastri, who emerged multiple seconds behind his team-mate on Lap 48.
But while Norris then ignored several calls to reverse the running order, the Briton slowed down on the start-finish straight with three laps to go to hand Piastri the win.
Asked whether there were worries at points that Norris would retain the lead, Piastri has revealed that his sole concern concerned a late Safety Car preventing a swap.
“I don’t think I was really concerned,” he said.
“The only thing I was concerned about a bit was if there was a safety car, then it would have taken the situation out of our hands, would have taken the control out of our hands.
“So, that was really the only thing I was a bit concerned about, but we’d spoken about it at the timing of the stop that we would sort it back out.
“And, yeah, I mean, I had full trust in everyone in the team, including Lando, that we would make that happen.”
Piastri has revealed that he was told that Norris pitting earlier than him revolved around McLaren’s desire to have cover in place against all scenarios versus its rivals.
“I’m sure it’s something we’ll discuss as a team,” Piastri added.
“The information I had at the time was Lando was boxing early to cover Lewis [Hamilton] and I was going long to cover Max, essentially, because I knew that he’d stopped later and I think we were just being very safe.
“Of course, that naturally gave Lando an undercut and maybe made things a little bit more complicated than it needed to be, but yeah, I’m sure that’s something we’ll go through.”
Piastri looked to have the measure over Norris in the nascent stages, but the Briton managed to extract more pace in the final stint to edge clear from his team-mate.
The ex-Alpine racer has explained that turbulence proved to be a big impediment to a trailing car at the Hungaroring, though he conceded he lacked speed at the end.
“I think the whole race we were very evenly matched. I think the dirty air made a big difference,” he highlighted.
“I think where I was in the last stint, I don’t think it made that much of a difference. I think ultimately I just wasn’t quite as quick as I needed to be in the last stint.”
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