Lando Norris admitted he only had himself to blame for his failure to win yesterday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, which ended in controversial fashion.
The pole-sitting Brit struggled off the start line and briefly dropped back to third place as teammate Oscar Piastri took the lead and pulled out an advantage.
But a pit-stop strategy to bring in Norris early and fend off the challenge of Lewis Hamilton in third swapped the order of the two McLarens over.
Norris was ordered to give back the place and so followed a series of frosty messages exchanged over the team radio between the driver and his race engineer Will Joseph, repeatedly telling Norris to restore the order of the two papaya cars.
He eventually did so with a few laps remaining, disgruntled in the cockpit at the time but sanguine once the dust had settled in the aftermath of a first McLaren one-two for three years.
“I didn’t deserve to win the race, simple as that,” said Norris afterwards. “The fact I was in that position was incorrect.
“If Oscar’s led the whole race, it’s not fair and I don’t think that’s how it should work, that he should just let me pass for me to win because I’m fighting for a championship. I didn’t give up the race, I lost it off the line.”
Whether Norris and McLaren come to regret the decision later in the season remains to be seen. Even now with the quickest car on the F1 grid, there may just be too much to do to close the 76-point gap to the Dutchman.
Verstappen, though, was left to rue missed points after battling Hamilton for the final podium spot late in the race.
It had echoes of the 2021 title fight as, on lap 63, Verstappen tried to dart down the inside, locked up his brakes, went straight on, bumped wheels with Hamilton and was briefly airborne before ending up off track.
Remarkably, neither car was noticeably damaged but it dropped Verstappen back to fifth after which the Dutchman pointed the finger of blame at Hamilton.
“I went for a move that was fully on,” said Verstappen. “But then in the middle of the braking zone when I’m already committed to the move he keeps turning right and, if I wouldn’t have turned while braking straight, I would have made contact with him. So, at one point naturally I lock up because he keeps on turning right.”
Hamilton saw it differently. The seven-time world champion said: “We passed a backmarker and I got into the braking zone and then Max appeared so I moved over to defend.
“I left enough room on the inside but Max locked up and he was going on a different trajectory to me. I was going around the corner and we came shooting across.
“It felt like a racing incident and it is easy to make mistakes like that so I don’t feel there should be any hostility but, of course, from his side there always will be.”
At that point, the two McLarens were way up ahead on the Hungaroring track in a fight of their own, albeit a vocal one over the team radio.
A first warning to Norris was followed by a radio check to ask if he’d heard, his response simply that the radio was working fine.
As he steadfastly clung to his position in first and argued his case for remaining there, his race engineer warned him: “You can’t win a world championship on your own. The only way is to win as a team.” A few more exchanges later, he finally ceded the position and the win.
Despite his in-race arguments, he said: “I know I was always going to go give it back unless they changed their mind, and they didn’t, so all good. You have to be selfish in this sport at times… I’m also a team player.
“Something we always talk about before every race is our trust in one another, our honesty we have as a group. I think that’s something that’s allowed us to catch others so quickly, to perform and outperform others so quickly to develop the car quicker.”
