Lando Norris yielded to team orders in Hungary three laps from the end to allow his McLaren garage-mate Oscar Piastri to win his first race – and one of the most controversial in the team’s history.

Amid heated scenes, Norris was repeatedly ordered to let his McLaren team-mate, 23-year-old Piastri pass. Coded messages were relayed. And overt ones. And conflicting ones.

It was a test of his ruthlessness. Would he budge? Should he budge, after the order of the pair’s second pit stops had handed him the lead? He had emerged from the pits 3.3 sec ahead when the first instructions to ‘re-establish the order’ came over his radio. He was, however, now the faster of the pair and by some way. He pulled out a lead of over five seconds.

He also had a world championship to think about – when will that penny ever drop at McLaren? He was the one who started the race 84 points behind Verstappen; not 131 back like Piastri. And he was told at the time of the pivotal stop that it was timed to cover off Lewis Hamilton.

So, should he change position?

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest on Sunday afternoon

Piastri pictured celebrating his victory by waving to the crowd at the Hungaroring racetrack

Australian Piastri took the chequered flag following a dramatic and controversial race

It was a McLaren one-two as Britain’s Lando Norris finished in second place at Hungaroring

As it looked likely he wouldn’t concede, he was ordered to by race engineer Will Joseph to do so. ‘You can’t win a world championship on your own,’ he was told. ‘The only way is to win it as a team.’

‘You have made your point,’ he was told as he kept up his runaway charge.

But with three laps remaining he gave into the incessant demands. He slowed down on the pit straight. ‘You don’t need to say anything,’ the Briton said scornfully.

Hamilton finished third for Mercedes – a good day for him, surviving an out-of-control move by Verstappen. The pair collided on lap 63 of 70, sending the Dutchman into the air. He continued to finish fifth, and in conflict with his pit wall, who called his complaints ‘childish’.

There was drama before the race even started in a harbinger of things to come Norris reported problems with his throttle as he drove his car on to a grid of egg-drying heat. His mechanics frantically attended to the issue, one threading hands through the chassis to the clever parts hidden below.

Others peered at computer screens in this frantic attempt to allow the pole-sitter even to start the race. They toiled on through the performing of the national anthem – Placido Domingo standing close by the ceremonials at the front, but with no signing part.

Norris returned to the car for an update. He could start. The grid cleared.

McLAREN ROW OVER THE RADIO

Here are the extraordinary exchanges between the race engineers and their drivers after McLaren decided Lando Norris should let Oscar Piastri through to win.

 

Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard: OK, Oscar, once you get to Lando we will swap positions.

 

Norris’s race engineer Will Joseph: We need you to… let Oscar through. I know you will do the right thing.

 

Joseph: OK, Lando, just remember every single Sunday morning meeting we have.

Norris: Yeah, well, tell him to catch up then, please.

Joseph: Lando, he can’t catch up. You have proved your point. Mate, we did the pit stops in this sequence for the good of the team.

Norris: And I am fighting for a world championship, am I not?

Joseph: I am trying to protect you, mate. I promise, I am trying to protect you.

 

Joseph: OK Lando, there are five laps to go and the way to win a world championship is not by yourself. It is with the team, and you are going to need Oscar and you are going to need the team.

 

Joseph: If there is a safety car, this is going to make it very awkward. Please do it now.

Norris finally moves aside on the start-finish straight on lap 67 of 70.

Norris: You don’t need to say anything.

Max Verstappen (left) and Lewis Hamilton (right) collided towards the end of Sunday’s race

The collision resulted in three of Verstappen’s four wheels temporarily leaving the track

Despite the collision, Hamilton (fifth from the right) ended on the podium after finishing third

Hamilton appeared to be pleased with his afternoon’s work following Sunday’s Grand Prix

Piastri (right) and Hamilton (left) pictured spraying each other with champagne on the podium

Could Norris get off as cleanly as he would wish? Could he get to the first corner ahead this time, as he hadn’t Spain from the same place. He couldn’t drama ensuing. He couldn’t he pushed too far right and was falling over Piastri, starting second. Verstappen, coming charging through on the outside of them went three abreast. The Dutchman ran off and gained a place. Norris fell to fourth briefly and then third moments later on that first lap.

Piastri was leading and Verstappen was told to hand a place back to Norris for running off track. ‘

‘OK, so you can just drive people off the track then,’ raged Verstappen. ‘You can tell the FIA that’s how we’re going to race from now onwards. Just driving people off the road.’

Anyway, Piastri led until the second round of pit stops changed things dramatically. And then, when Norris bowed to his bosses, they changed once and for all.