McLaren boss Andrea Stella has insisted Oscar Piastri’s attempted move on Lando Norris late in the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix remained “within our principles”.
The McLaren duo being on split strategies created a grandstand conclusion at the Hungaroring as the two-stopping Piastri chased down his one-stopping team-mate.
Having surged past Charles Leclerc’s ailing Ferrari to reclaim second, Piastri closed on Norris and got within DRS range of the sister McLaren with five laps remaining.
But despite having Piastri glued to his gearbox until the chequered flag, Norris held his nerve on older rubber to lead McLaren’s 200th win, boosting his title prospects.
The closest Piastri came to making a race-winning overtake transpired on the penultimate lap when a late dive into Turn 1 saw him lock up and almost run into Norris.
Norris admitted post-race that he had no problem with Piastri’s lunge despite the near miss, highlighting that the Australian would’ve regretted not attempting a move.
Likewise, Stella intimated Piastri didn’t overstep the mark as he had done in Austria, when he narrowly avoided wiping Norris out with an identical manoeuvre that day.
“When you have two great drivers, like Lando and Oscar, who race for a victory in a Formula 1 Grand Prix, and race for the Drivers’ Championship, it’s always going to be very close,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“But that was firm racing, it was fair racing at the same time. It was definitely within our principles.
“We had a bit of a lock-up with Oscar, but at the same time Lando left some space, because he knew that Oscar would have been at the limit of braking.
“We keep being very proud of how Lando and are Oscar racing. I think this is a great way of honouring Formula 1 racing, these are the venues of McLaren, it’s going to be, hopefully, a matter between the two McLaren drivers,
even if we saw Ferrari today was in the competition for the victory for two thirds of the races, I think we have a very entertaining and interesting final part of the season.”
McLaren drivers executing races at ‘the highest standard’
The McLaren drivers have been engaged in multiple riveting wheel-to-wheel battles during 2025, with the sole collision coming when Norris ran into Piastri in Canada.
Stella expressed pride at the clean manner in which they have raced each other throughout the season until this point, even with a probable championship on the line.
“I have to say that both drivers, Lando and Oscar, are driving at a very high level, in absolute terms, when it comes to racecraft in Formula 1,” he said. “I think both will have to be happy with their driving.
“Lando found himself on a deviating strategy, and he had more clean air, more laps in which he could use the full potential of the car.
“Oscar spent quite some time behind Leclerc; this might have cost him a bit of time, but I think both executed their race at the highest standards.
“I’m not surprised, they are both great drivers, they are both improving race by race, and I’m sure they will keep doing this until the end of the season.”
READ MORE – McLaren credits Lando Norris with making one stop ‘possible’ in F1 Hungarian GP
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