Oscar Piastri became F1’s 115th Grand Prix winner in history as he took the chequered flag in first in Hungary. The Australian’s victory at the Hungaroring circuit has put him alongside some of the most elite drivers the sport has seen. During the recent episode of the ‘F1 Nation’ podcast, Tom Clarkson revealed how only a handful of Formula 1 drivers have registered their first win at the racetrack in Budapest.
Speaking to Albert Fabrega, Clarkson noted, “Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen, Esteban Ocon, Damon Hil, and now Oscar Piastri have all won their first Grand Prix here in Hungary.” Button achieved his maiden F1 win in Hungary back in 2006.
Meanwhile, Alonso won his back in 2003, Kovalainen won in 2008, Damon Hill in 1993, and Ocon in 2021. While the first Grand Prix win is always unforgettable for F1 drivers, Piastri will remember his victory also for the controversy that transpired during the race on Sunday.
Despite achieving the best possible result of the weekend, it has to be said that McLaren almost messed up the race for the Aussie driver. On lap 45, while Piastri was leading the race, the papaya team decided to pit the Australian’s teammate Lando Norris who was just two seconds behind.
This early pit stop helped Norris undercut Piastri and take over the lead of the race. It was only after a lot of back and forth between Norris and his race engineer Will Joseph that McLaren could help Piastri regain the lead with just three laps to go in the race. And now Piastri has said that he’ll be talking to the team about what went wrong in Hungary.
Piastri explains why he got undercut by Norris
Piastri was delighted to have finally stood on the top step of the podium. However, he said that winning a Grand Prix was his second dream. His first was to become an F1 driver.
“Yeah, like I said, an incredible moment that I’ve been dreaming for a very long time. My first dream in my career was reaching F1, the second one was winning a race, so I am very very happy and proud…” Piastri said.
Moments that will last forever, still hasn’t quite sunk in pic.twitter.com/jJZQTZZPmx
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) July 21, 2024
Clarkson then asked Piastri why he was not given the first choice of pitstop for the final stint as it would have helped avoid the drama. In response, the 23-year-old explained that Norris had to stop first to cover an undercut from Lewis Hamilton.
Meanwhile, Piastri himself was going long to prevent an undercut from Max Verstappen who stopped nearly 10 laps later than Hamilton. Per Piastri’s reasoning, McLaren just wanted to be on the safe side and protect their 1-2 at the Hungaroring.
