Oscar Piastri is adamant he fully deserved his maiden Formula 1 victory and has rejected suggestions it was handed to him on a plate by his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
The Australian had been leading for much of last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix before Norris was shaken out in front after the final pitstop, with McLaren then ordering the Brit to allow Piastri to pass into the lead.
A disgruntled Norris pushed back on McLaren’s request before eventually pulling aside to allow Piastri to score his first win. However, Norris’s initial disobedience and subsequent decision to comply with McLaren’s instruction caused many to question the integrity of Piastri’s win.
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Nonetheless, the 23-year-old is adamant that he was deserving of the victory, irrespective of the circumstances surrounding it.
When asked if he would have preferred a simple victory without any controversy, he said: “In an ideal world, maybe. The last pitstop was only done that way because we were in a team 1-2 and there was full trust that we were going to reverse that.
“So for me, I feel like I deserved it, I certainly don’t feel like it was given to me or anything like that. That’s not to say there are not things I could still do better.
“At the end of the day, I put myself in a good position at the start of the race and if we were genuinely racing at that point, then we wouldn’t have pitted the way we did. So yeah, I think I deserve it.”
Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, celebrates on arrival in Parc Ferme
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Piastri was asked if he had spoken with Norris to clear the air and revealed that the two had not spoken about the Hungarian GP but did play a game of Monopoly over a McDonald’s takeaway.
Although admitting the team is yet to fully dig into what went wrong in Hungary, Piastri does not expect McLaren to change its stance in terms of rules of engagement and will continue to allow them to race.
He added: “Of course, we’re still racing for the team. We’ve maybe not been in a 1-2 scenario [before], but we’ve been close to each other a lot of times on track and close for podiums.
“This situation specifically was pretty nuanced and maybe we hadn’t discussed fully but I think there is an expectation that we’re going to race each other hard, but fair and never come into contact.
“We always have in mind that certain strategic…
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