Lando Norris was tight lipped when asked for his feelings about the dramatic circumstances at the finish of today's Hungarian Grand Prix in which he handed a guaranteed race win to McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri.
Norris had started the race from pole position, but lost the lead into turn 1 when Piastri dived down the inside while Max Verstappen went three wide on the outside of the corner.
Norris initially dropped to third but was given P2 back by Verstappen after the Red Bull had run wide during his overtaking move. Piastri maintained the lead after that and it looked like McLaren was flying in formation to the finish.
However the final round of pit stops saw Norris come in first and undercut his team mate who had a slow stop, and then briefly ran off when he tried to make up lost ground on Norris who was now in front.
McLaren made it clear that they expected Norris to give the position back before the end, but Norris didn't see it the same way and resisted increasingly desperate please from the pit wall until three laps to the finish.
In the end, Norris complied. And while he was generous toward Piastri, he was clearly not happy with the way that the team had handled the increasingly fraught situation during the race.
“The team asked me to do it, so I did it. And that's it," was his clipped response when asked about the team orders in parc ferme after McLaren secured it's first 1-2 finish since the 2021 Italian GP.
“That's the main thing, honestly,” Norris insisted. “I'm so happy, it's been a long journey to get to achieving this on merit.
“That's exactly what we did today. We were a long way clear of the rest ,and we did it in style as well. So a good one by the team, and of course Oscar.
“He had a good start. He got me off the line and he controlled the race well. It was coming at some point and he deserved it today.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella did not hold Norris' initial reluctance to comply with team orders against the driver. Indeed, he felt that it would have been very wrong if Norris had simply rolled over.
“I don't know any race driver that when he's leading a race would be happy to say, ‘Oh yeah, of course, why don't we swap back the position to the previous order?’” Stella told Sky Sports F1.
“That's not possible. That’s not the nature of the drivers. I would be extremely worried, you would see me very concerned, if Lando would say so," he added. "That's why we needed to recall our principles from Sunday morning.
“None of us - the team, Lando, Oscar - can go alone. That's the message that we discussed on Sunday morning," he explained. “With drivers, you need to refresh this message. That’s why we have this meeting every Sunday.
"If we want to be competitive in the championship - for Lando in particular who is in the strongest position - he will need the support of Oscar, he will need the support of the team., so that's that's how we are moving forward.
"We are extremely pleased with how our drivers are supporting the trajectory of McLaren, which is incredible," he said. "That's the news today - the message is there's a P1-2 in qualifying and a P1-2 in the race, and that’s incredible.”
McLaren's 1-2 compared to fifth for Verstappen and P7 for his team mate Sergio Perez means they outscored their rivals by 27 points in the constructors standings, reducing Red Bull's lead to 51 points with 11 races remaining.
Norris felt that it was game on when it came to the championship. “For sure! Definitely as a constructor, two good drivers and an amazing team, absolutely,” he insisted.
"It'll still be difficult, still a long way to go," he acknowledged. "Today was our day, Spa it can change completely, so we'll keep pushing and we'll try to do more of the same.”
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