Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. TOTOTO Oscar Piastri achieved one of the best and worst races of his career this Sunday. His start was great, overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and overtaking the pole sitter and teammate Lando Norris on the first
Oscar Piastri achieved one of the best and worst races of his career this Sunday.
His start was great, overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and overtaking the pole sitter and teammate Lando Norris on the first lap to lead the Hungarian Grand Prix.
After a rocky start to his 2026 campaign, it seemed like this was finally Piastri’s moment, a legitimate chance to win a grand prix or get on the podium.
Piastri managed to keep Norris at bay for almost half the race. Then everything went to hell.
McLaren decided to pit Piastri on lap 34 and opted to keep Norris out to prevent Lewis Hamilton from undercutting the McLarens. Piastri pitted, but then got caught behind the rear markers (slower cars that are about to be lapped), including Carlos Sainz, who cut his front wheel.
“Get out of the damn way, you idiot! Oh my God,” Piastri said over the radio.
Moments later, Norris, staying longer on his second set of tires, was able to pit and emerge ahead of Piastri.
The Australian’s race engineer informed Piastri over the team radio that the collision with Sainz had cost him the race lead.
“Oh man, just don’t talk to me now,” Piastri said in an unusual show of frustration.
Piastri proceeded to criticize McLaren’s strategy, pointing out that he was put in a situation where he would encounter traffic.
“It’s very kind of you to keep that in mind, thank you,” he said.
On lap 56, Piastri’s McLaren stopped on the side of the track, due to a suspected gearbox failure. With 14 laps to go, his race was over and the Australian added another DNF to his resume.
Norris took his first win of the season, with Dutchman Max Verstappen in second and world championship leader Kimi Antonelli in third.
To say 2026 has been a challenging year for Piastri would be an understatement.
The Australian crashed during his home Grand Prix in March, the victim of an unfortunate combination of cold tyres, increased engine torque and driver error. Then there were electrical problems in Shanghai, when his McLaren was abruptly removed from the grid before the formation lap.
There have been glimpses of a possible resurrection, with a podium finish in Miami and Japan and a close fight in Austria, followed by contact with Charles Leclerc at the Belgian Grand Prix taking away the chances of a podium finish.
The Australian star has also had to deal with growing rumors over the safety of his seat amid reports that Verstappen is looking to end his tenure at Red Bull.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said it was good to see Norris and Piastri “fighting at the start for a good position”, calling it “a great race”.
“Oscar had his own chance to take the lead and see what pace he could have had,” he told Sky Sports.
“The way the race went meant that with Oscar we covered Hamilton and then there was a situation with the stragglers. Lando was very fast once he took the lead and took advantage of the pace and the fact that there was a bit of a delay for Oscar.”
“That’s racing. We’re McLaren racing. It was a great race.”
Speaking to the media after the race, Piastri seemed more composed and was as easy-going as ever.
“I feel quite disappointed,” he said.
“I feel like the first lap was good, the first stint overall was reasonable and then I struggled to keep the pace on the hard track… but I had track position, and I felt like even though I was struggling, I felt like I could hold on, but from that point on, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.”
“As for strategy, you don’t plan a strategy to be eliminated by a backmarker. So I can’t blame the team at all for that.
“So [I’ll] Try to improve during the break. Give yourself some time to reset and come back.”
The F1 season will now pause mid-year ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.
Earlier this weekend, the FIA announced that Malaysia’s Sepang circuit would host a Formula 1 race for the first time since 2017 as a substitute venue for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The race will take place on October 4.
News, results and expert analysis of the sports weekend are sent every Monday. Subscribe to our sports newsletter.
Hannah Kennelly is an award-winning sports reporter and Formula 1 writer at The Age.Connect by email.From our partners
Keep following us for the latest insights.
