Martin Brundle explains why Oscar Piastri will be ‘seething’ with McLaren after the Hungarian Grand Prix

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Oscar Piastri just missed out on winning the Hungarian Grand Prix for a second year in a row, finishing just six tenths behind teammate Lando Norris.

The Australian chased down Norris, who switched to a one-stop strategy halfway through the race, while Piastri was on the two-stop that was supposed to be 18 seconds faster.

Track conditions were similar to qualifying, and the Briton was able to extend his first stint, which gave him free air in his final stint to make up the gap to Piastri and polesitter Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc shocked everyone by taking pole in qualifying, but would end up dropping behind both McLarens with a chassis problem, while Piastri told his team to focus on Norris with strategy.

When he emerged from the pits with a favourable tyre offset to Norris in his final stint, he chased the Briton down and made two attempts at an overtake at Turn 1, before backing out and conceding the win.

Martin Brundle thinks Piastri will be unhappy with his McLaren team when speaking on Sky Sports F1 (03/08 3:50pm), after they focused too much on Leclerc, who was nowhere near the lap times Norris was doing at the end of the race.

Martin Brundle thinks Oscar Piastri will be ‘seething’ with McLaren strategy

McLaren kept Piastri out for four laps longer than the pit window in the final stint, as they discussed whether he wanted to undercut Leclerc or have the tyre offset to Norris.

The Australian told his team to focus on Norris, but they felt his race was with Leclerc and persisted, before being told to focus on maximising the opportunity to pass the Briton by Piastri.

Brundle suspects Piastri will be unhappy with how that strategy played out, given Piastri lost out on an opportunity to convert to the same strategy.

“Oscar will be seething with that. The two radio calls to pit and undercut Leclerc, McLaren were busy strategising to beat Leclerc. Norris didn’t have that, he came in 13 laps later [in first stint] and changed strategy,” said Brundle.

“So the great irony is that by not being in that battle with the Ferrari in front, they had more freedom, but he still had to deliver that pace for that amount of time. Piastri will be saying: ‘Why didn’t we do that? Why did we two-stop and get beat by our teammate who started behind?'”

Martin Brundle hails one of Lando Norris’ best victories

Brundle has hailed Norris’ win as one of the best in his F1 career, given how long he needed to nurse the set of hard tyres.

Norris switched to them 31 laps into the race, with them going on to do another 38 laps of the race – one of the longest stints apart from Andrea Kimi Antonelli who did 48 laps.

“That was tremendous. That surely was one of Lando Norris’ best victories in F1 because the different strategies, 39 laps he coaxed those tyres at a great speed and got it until the end of the Grand Prix,” said Brundle.

Norris moves to within 10 points of Piastri heading into the summer break, having taken a second win in the last three races.