Oscar Piastri is adamant he fully deserved his maiden Formula 1 victory and has rejected suggestions it was handed to him on a plate by his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
The Australian had been leading for much of last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix before Norris was shaken out in front after the final pitstop, with McLaren then ordering the Brit to allow Piastri to pass into the lead.
A disgruntled Norris pushed back on McLaren's request before eventually pulling aside to allow Piastri to score his first win. However, Norris's initial disobedience and subsequent decision to comply with McLaren's instruction caused many to question the integrity of Piastri's win.
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Nonetheless, the 23-year-old is adamant that he was deserving of the victory, irrespective of the circumstances surrounding it.
When asked if he would have preferred a simple victory without any controversy, he said: "In an ideal world, maybe. The last pitstop was only done that way because we were in a team 1-2 and there was full trust that we were going to reverse that.
"So for me, I feel like I deserved it, I certainly don't feel like it was given to me or anything like that. That's not to say there are not things I could still do better.
"At the end of the day, I put myself in a good position at the start of the race and if we were genuinely racing at that point, then we wouldn't have pitted the way we did. So yeah, I think I deserve it."
Piastri was asked if he had spoken with Norris to clear the air and revealed that the two had not spoken about the Hungarian GP but did play a game of Monopoly over a McDonald's takeaway.
Although admitting the team is yet to fully dig into what went wrong in Hungary, Piastri does not expect McLaren to change its stance in terms of rules of engagement and will continue to allow them to race.
He added: "Of course, we're still racing for the team. We've maybe not been in a 1-2 scenario [before], but we've been close to each other a lot of times on track and close for podiums.
"This situation specifically was pretty nuanced and maybe we hadn't discussed fully but I think there is an expectation that we're going to race each other hard, but fair and never come into contact.
"We always have in mind that certain strategic decisions, like the second stop timing, are done with the team's ambitions in mind.
"If we were flat-out racing each other and didn't have anyone else to worry about behind, then the pitstop order would have been completely different. But we did have cars to worry about so that's why we swapped it and that's why we swapped it back."
However, Piastri also says that he would also be prepared to help Norris out in the future if it meant he could help him win the drivers' championship.
He added: "I want to try and get myself up as high as I can, but I race for McLaren and they have the ultimate say. I'm going to try and make up as many points as I can, of course, we're still very early in the season and I'm a long way behind in the drivers' standings, but I'm also not out of it.
"If they need me to be a team player and try and help Lando, then of course, I'll do that. But I think the biggest thing is trying to score the most points of all the teams and win the constructors'. I think that's definitely the biggest opportunity we have and we'll see if this happens."
