Lando Norris has revealed he was considering his Formula 1 title chances when he was reluctant to let team-mate Oscar Piastri pass to win the Hungarian Grand Prix.
McLaren’s upward momentum over recent months culminated with the squad claiming a first 1-2 since September 2021 as Piastri achieved his maiden F1 career win.
However, the Woking-based squad’s celebrations have been clouded due to a team order saga that saw Norris require several calls to return the lead to the Australian.
Piastri edged Norris at the start and controlled the lead up until the second round of stops when McLaren opted to grant the second-placed runner a two-lap undercut.
But while Norris challenged his race engineer’s call to reverse the positions at an optimum moment, the Briton relented with three laps to go to hand the win to Piastri.
Norris has divulged that his original intention was to swap places right at the death, but McLaren’s caution about a potential intervention prompted him to do it earlier.
Asked to explain the reason behind him not putting the entire team at ease with an instant change when he was told, Norris replied: “I don’t need to.
“I know what I’m going to do, and what I’m not going to do. Of course I’m going to just question it and challenge it, and that’s what I did.
“I was going to wait until the last lap, the last corner.
“But then they said if there was a Safety Car all of a sudden, and I couldn’t let Oscar go through, then it would have made me look like a bit of an idiot.
“Yeah, then I was like yeah, fair point. So I let him go with two to go or something, and straightaway I let him go.
“So yeah. I mean that’s just your opinion of what you hear. But that’s the same with all sports.
“You can make what you will of what you hear and what you think you know and that kind of stuff.
“I know I was always going to give it back unless they changed their mind on what they were saying, and they didn’t, so all good.”
Max Verstappen started third behind the two McLaren drivers, but incorrect strategic calls and a clash with Lewis Hamilton saw him trail home in a distant fifth place.
The Dutchman’s championship advantage has now been reduced to 76 points and Norris, who is still his nearest challenger, conceded that situation was on his mind.
“These things are always going to go through your mind,” Norris answered when asked whether he considered not returning the place.
“You’ve got to be selfish in this sport at times. You’ve got to think of yourself, that’s priority number one, think of yourself.
“I’m also a team player. My mind was going pretty crazy at the time.
“I know what we’ve done in the past between Oscar and myself, he’s helped me plenty of times, and I think this is a different situation.
“This is not someone helping one another. I was put into a position, and we were undoing that position change.
“But I mean I’m also, and I know a lot of people are going to say, like, the gap between me and Max is pretty big, 60, 70, 80 points or something.
“But if Red Bull and Max make the mistakes they did today, and continue to do that, and as a team, we continue to improve and have weekends like we’ve had, we can turn it around.
“It’s still optimistic. It’s still a big goal to say we can close 70 points, as a driver I can close 70 points in half a season.
“When you’re thinking of the seven or six points that I give away, it crosses your mind, for sure.
“So, it was not easy. But I also understood the situation I was in, and I was quite confident always by the last lap I would have done it.”
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