McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that while he was not bothered by Lando Norris initially refusing to follow instructions from the pit wall and let his team-mate through to win on Sunday, he would have been “very concerned” if the Briton had simply let Oscar Piastri through without a word of complaint.
Pole-sitter Norris was trailing team-mate Oscar Piastri when Sunday’s action got underway at the Hungaroring, with the Australian building a comfortable advantage and maintaining the lead during the opening round of pit stops.
Read more > Monday morning briefing: Why did McLaren stop Norris before Piastri – and did they really have to?
However, with McLaren later feeling threatened by the power of the cars behind them, they elected to bring Norris in for a tyre change ahead of Piastri during the second sequence of pit stops – resulting in the two cars switching positions due to the speed gap.
Piastri was told by the race engineer not to worry about the development, and Norris was asked to step aside and give up pole position as he had taken it in the pit lane, only for the Briton to initially question the decision and show some hesitation.
Eventually, after several pleas from engineer Will Joseph, including a reminder of McLaren’s pre-race meetings, Norris backed down and let Piastri through, but it was a moment that sparked much debate among spectators.
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