Oscar Piastri captured in frosty moment with teammate as Lando Norris makes bombshell confession

Oscar Piastri's maiden Formula One grand prix triumph has been overshadowed by an ugly team orders controversy involving teammate Lando Norris at the Hungarian GP. Piastri became just the fifth Aussie driver to reach motor racing's pinnacle but only after his McLaren teammate Norris eventually listened to team orders to let Piastri pass him late on in the race.

It was a day of extraordinary internal drama for McLaren, with Norris revealing afterwards that he contemplated defying the team's wishes before finally moving aside to let Piastri claim victory. The Aussie had led for the majority of the race but McLaren's pit strategy saw Norris come in first when the team pulled him in for his second tyre change two laps earlier than Piastri.

Norris then held a five-second advantage over Piastri when the Aussie emerged from his pit stop, with the team telling the Englishman that he should give the place back to the Aussie at his convenience. But Norris initially refused to let his teammate overtake him, with the Brit's race engineer Will Joseph repeatedly telling him to give back the place. "The way to win a championship is not by yourself, it's with the team. You're gonna need Oscar and you're gonna need the team," he could be heard telling Norris.

A huge row threatened to unravel at McLaren until Norris finally decided to let Piasri pass him on the 68th lap of 70 at the Hungaroring circuit. It saw the Victorian win his first grand prix after four previous podiums, with Piastri also winning a sprint race in Qatar last year. Norris finished second to complete a McLaren one-two, with Lewis Hamilton claiming the final podium spot despite a collision with Red Bull's reigning world champion Max Verstappen that saw him eventually finish fifth behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in awkward scenes after race

Things still seemed a little frosty between Norris and his McLaren teammate Piastri after the race, with footage from the cooldown room capturing an awkward exchange involving the pair. Hamilton tried to compliment his fellow Brit on how fast the McLaren cars were but Norris took it as a dig from the seven-time world champion by reminding Hamilton that he had a fast car "seven years ago".

Hamilton was clearly taken aback and insisted he was merely complimenting Norris on the race, before Piastri entered the room. The tensions were clearly still palpable between the two McLaren teammates, with Norris refusing to make eye contact with Piastri in another awkward exchange. The Brit later admitted in his post-race press conference that he contemplated defying the team orders to let Piastri win the race.

McLaren's Lando Norris contemplated refusing team orders

"Things are always going to go through your head because you have to be selfish in this sport and you have to think of yourself as priority number one," Norris said. "But I am also a team player so my mind was going pretty crazy. The gap between me and Max is pretty big but if Red Bull and Max made the mistakes like they did today, and, as a team we continue to improve, we can turn it (the championship) around.

RELATED:

• Daniel Ricciardo responds amid shock claims of axing from F1 team

• Oscar Piastri dudded by 'embarrassing' call as Max Verstappen blasted

"Yes, it is a big goal to say I can close 70 points in half a season. But you think of the seven points I gave away today, and that crosses your mind for sure. It was not easy but I understood the situation and I was quite confident by the last lap I would do it." Norris is now 76 points behind Verstappen, but would have headed to next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix 69 behind the Red Bull driver if McLaren had allowed him to win.

Norris said McLaren did not make the wrong call and admitted he "didn't deserve to win" but lamented the way it unfolded. "I didn't lose the win. I lost if off the line. I had a terrible start, a bad start. Something happened on my second shift and I lost momentum. I didn't deserve to win," he said. "But I got put into the lead, rather than wanting to be there. That was a mistake. We made things way too hard for ourselves.

"We should have stopped Oscar first and we wouldn't even be having this discussion. We need to talk about that. But after my start, I should not have had those points in my hand in the first place so the team were right and I stand by what they did."

Piastri now joins Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo on the Australian F1 roll of honour, and declared: "It's very, very special. This is the day I dreamed of as a kid, stepping to the top of an F1 podium. Obviously, a bit complicated at the end but I put myself in the right position at the start, and thank you to the team - an amazing effort."

with agencies