Oscar Piastri feels that he “deserved” his maiden Formula 1 race victory after McLaren team orders paved the way for his team-mate Lando Norris to let the Australian pass for the win in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Piastri got the jump on Norris at lights out and led for the first two stints at the Hungaroring.
McLaren sought to preserve a one-two finish from being undercut by the likes of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in the final stint of the race, electing to pit Norris, who was in second, two laps before race leader Piastri.
That in turn allowed Norris to undercut his Australian team-mate, under the promise he would swap positions with Piastri.
Norris did so, but only after opening a six-second gap over Piastri through several laps and with just three tours of the Hungaroring remaining.
Did that dampen Piastri’s maiden victory, and did Norris’ pace in the final stint reveal that the Australian wasn’t a deserved winner?
The answer from Piastri was, in lengthier words, no.
“I’m not sure I’d say [Norris] gave [the win] to me, maybe he gave it back to me,” Piastri told the media on Thursday ahead of the Belgian GP.
Regarding the final stint, where Norris built a gap over Piastri before slowing down to let his team-mate through, the Australian said “The dirty air does have a big impact, even from that far back.
“To be honest, I think we were very evenly matched the whole race. I pulled a little bit of a gap in the first and second stint, Lando pulled a bit of a gap in the third one, so I think we were very evenly matched and ultimately track position was a massive key for that.
“That’s especially why I feel like I deserve [the win], because I gave myself the track position in the start.”
Would Piastri have liked to have won his first Formula 1 GP without the team orders intervention?
“In an ideal world, maybe, but for me I feel like I deserved it,” Piastri said, doubling down on his stance.
“The last pit stop was only done that way because we were in a team one-two.
“There was full trust that we were going to reverse that. So for me I feel like I deserved it. I don’t feel like it was given to me or anything like that.
“It’s not to say there’s not things I could still do better. But at the end of the day I put myself in a good position at the start of the race.
“If we were genuinely racing at that point then we wouldn’t have pitted the way we did.”
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