Lando Norris tight-lipped on McLaren team orders following Hungarian GP tension

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren.

Lando Norris wasn’t particularly interested in chatting about the team orders from McLaren as he was told to give up the lead to Oscar Piastri.

Strategic planning from McLaren resulted in the Woking-based squad being backed into an awkward corner after giving second-placed Lando Norris priority in the final stops at the Hungaroring.

Lando Norris: The team asked me to do it

With Piastri having led for most of the race, Norris was in second place when he got the call to come into the pits to protect him from an attack from behind from the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and Max Verstappen.

But the undercut resulted in Norris coming out ahead of Piastri when the Australian pitted, and the British driver was reluctant to hand back the lead as race engineer Will Joseph pleaded with his driver to play the team game.

With an impassioned message to Norris coming to tell him how championships are won with the support of a team, not as an individual, Norris yielded position with three laps to go to give the lead and the win to Piastri.

With tensions dissipating as a result, Norris smiled as he was asked about his race immediately after the chequered flag.

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“Amazing day for us, as a team. I think that’s the main thing, honestly,” he said, as McLaren claimed the 1-2.

“I’m so happy – we’ve spent a long journey to get to achieving this on our own merits and that’s exactly what we did today and I think a long way clear of the rest so we did it in style as well.

“So, a good run by the team and of course from 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.”

Asked specifically by Nico Rosberg about his thoughts on the team orders and the building tension, Norris was brief in his answer: “The team asked me to do it, so I did it and that’s it.”

Oscar Piastri: It was well-executed by McLaren

Having claimed his first win of his career, Piastri admitted he had been getting increasingly nervous about whether his teammate would obey the instruction – the Australian having been told even before his final stop not to worry about Norris’ undercut.

“The longer you leave it, the more you get a bit nervous but, no, it was well executed by the team and I think it was the right thing,” he said.

“I put myself in the right position at the start. And, with the different strategy we had, yes, my pace probably wasn’t as quick as I would have liked in the last stint, but I was still in the right position to make it happen. So yeah, well executed from the team.”

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