McLaren boss reacts to Oscar Piastri's hair-raising moment in battle with Lando Norris for the F1 Hungarian GP win

McLaren boss Andrea Stella put down the hair-raising moment between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the Hungarian GP to two drivers just giving their all in the race. The last race before the summer break came down to the two drivers being separated by just seven-tenths of a second.

The race began with Piastri trying to chase down Charles Leclerc while Norris was in P4, trying to overtake George Russell after a bad start. With the Australian getting boxed in behind the Monegasque driver, the team decided to trigger a two-stopper.

Piastri would pit early, and Leclerc would do the same to cover the McLaren driver. Norris, on the other hand, went on the alternative strategy, where he went for a single stopper.

With the two McLaren drivers using divergent strategies, it was always going to come down to a point where Oscar Piastri would have to overtake Lando Norris on the track. After the Australian's second pit stop and after jumping the hobbling Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, Piastri set out to chase his teammate.

The Australian caught up with his McLaren teammate with only a few laps left, and on the second-to-last lap, he went for an audacious lunge that saw him lock up his tires and almost crash into Lando Norris.

Talking about the moment to the media, including Sportskeeda, McLaren boss Andrea Stella wasn't too bothered by the move. He said,

"When you have two great drivers like Lando and Oscar who race for a victory in a Formula 1 grand prix and race for the drivers' championship, it's always going to be very close. But that was firm racing. It was fair racing. At the same time, it was definitely within our principles."

He added,

"We had a bit of a lock-up with Oscar. But, at the same time, Lando left some space because he knew that Oscar would have been on the limit of braking."

Oscar Piastri's painful experience of losing to his McLaren teammate

Oscar Piastri was gutted after the race, as he had the edge throughout the key moments except the last one, where Lando Norris edged him in the end. Looking back at the race, the Australian felt that the race was quite fun but was a bit painful because of the loss. He said during his press conference after the race,

“You know, whenever you lose a race by such a little amount, it’s obviously a bit painful, but I mean, I’m sure it was entertaining from the outside. It was entertaining from the inside as well. So, you know, pretty fun race, all things considered."

The gap between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris has now shrunk to only nine points in the championship. It will be interesting to see how the intensity changes when we get back to racing after the summer break.