Lando Norris admits that he contemplated delaying the handover of the lead in Hungary until the final corner of the race.

As the debate over Lando Norris' attitude during Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix continues, the Briton has added fuel to the fire by admitting that he considered handing the lead to his teammate in the final corner.

As Will Joseph all but begged the Briton to yield, other than criticising his team's strategy, Norris also questioned the pace of his teammate. However, three laps from the end he slowed on the main straight to allow Oscar Piastri through.

"I was going to wait until the last lap, the last corner," admits the Briton. "But then they said if there was a safety car all of a sudden, and I couldn't let Oscar go through, then it would have made me look like a bit of an idiot.

"Then I was like, 'yeah, it's fair point'. And I let him go."

He had 'inherited' the lead when McLaren controversially opted to pit him ahead of Piastri, even though the Australian was leading the race.

"These things are always going to go through your mind," he said. "You've got to be selfish in this sport at times. You've got to think of yourself, that's priority number one... think of yourself.

"But I'm also a team player," he added. "My mind was going pretty crazy at the time.

"I know what we've done in the past between Oscar and myself, he's helped me plenty of times, and I think this is a different situation. This is not someone helping one another. I was put into a position, and we were undoing that position change.

"But I mean I'm also... and I know a lot of people are going to say, the gap between me and Max is pretty big, 60, 70, 80 points or something, but if Red Bull and Max make mistakes like they did today, and continue to do that, and as a team we continue to improve and have weekends like we've had this weekend, we can turn it around.

"It's still optimistic. It's still a big goal to say we can close 70 points, as a driver I can close 70 points in half a season. When you're thinking of the seven or six points that I give away, it crosses your mind, for sure. So, it was not easy. But I also understood the situation I was in, and I was quite confident always by the last lap I would have done it."

Of course, Norris could have spared himself the damage to his image if he had yielded to Piastri far sooner and then fought the Australian for the position. Or was that a challenge too far for the Briton who until now has been treated pretty much like the Woking outfit's Golden Boy.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Pavlo, 24/07/2024 6:59

"Regarding Nr 1 vs Nr2, Norris is still 40 points ahead of Piastri, it’s highly unlikely that he would be called Nr2. At least not this season."

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2. Posted by kenji, 24/07/2024 2:24

"@Schrodinger's cat...AFAIK both drivers were fully aware of the principle of leading car gets first pit option. This was enunciated quite early on. By memory I recall that when it occurred Piastri was told that the call was precautionary and that the place would be handed back. Using the excuse re Hamilton being covered off was IMO simply a ruse. Numerous commentators saw through that as the strategists would've done the sums and should have rightly dismissed the theory as highly improbable. That point was proved to be accurate. Norris was gifted that position. The so called 'killer instinct' is merely a weak excuse for being untrustworthy within the team. As for your forecast re Norris becoming No.2, well I'd love to see that but the jury is still out ATM..... but not for too much longer. We need to see more races but I fear that McLaren will be working non stop to limit Oscar's success as it does not conform to the playlist."

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3. Posted by Schrodinger's cat, 24/07/2024 0:59

"Mush to the chagrin of the British media and fans, Norris will become the second driver at McLaren very soon. Piastri is very talented, and if McLaren doesn't make him the first driver, he will be fielding offers from rival teams.

And while Norris eventually did the right thing, he is a prick, because he made sure that everybody could see he would have won, thus spoiling Oscar first win. Surely you noticed Oscar muted response to winning.

But Norris being a prick is not terrible. If you want to succeed if F1 you need to do what's best for you, and ignore how that affects others. That's why it's so entertaining when a driver is asked to consider their team mate."

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4. Posted by @R1Racing71, 23/07/2024 20:01

"I find it Quite bizarre despite being substantially better off in the championship McLaren still insisted that Oscar take the victory.
McLaren are the inform team at the moment and this should have been their third victory on the bounce. They really should be championship contenders with the added advantage that the Mercedes team can easily take points of Max and Redbull who are only fielding a one car team. If McLaren get their act together they can easily take the championship fight to max and the best they can hope for is that they have a mathematical chance of the championship at the last race of the season.
I have a horrid feeling this decision to allow Oscar the victory Will come back to bite them.
Championships are won and lost by a single point, if I were them I would dust off the Ron Dennis playbook that is gathering dust somewhere in the McLaren vault.
As far as Lando is concerned he's probably just David Coulthard himself.
"

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5. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 23/07/2024 18:37

"Has anyone seen a full transcript of the radio traffic between the pit wall and Norris?

We need to know if McLaren explicitly told Norris about the intention to swap positions back if he gained an advantage during the pit stop.

If McLaren communicated the pit strategy clearly, AHEAD of his second stop, then expecting Norris to return the position to Piastri makes complete sense.

However, if the strategic aim wasn't communicated to him until AFTER the stop, then Norris’ reluctance to concede the place is understandable. Drivers obviously expect to maintain positions if they gain an advantage through normal race strategies, even if their team mate’s side of the garage makes a poor decision on pit stop timings. "

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6. Posted by Forza Minardi, 23/07/2024 13:26

"Lando's attitude this weekend solidified for me my dislike of him - petulant, arrogant, disrespectful. Oscar, on the hand, appears to be a class act."

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7. Posted by kenji, 23/07/2024 12:34

"@ Mad Matt....I cancelled him long ago! I am not taken in by the eyelash fluttering and always looking anywhere but into the eyes of the interviewer. Norris is a very fast and seriously competent driver and competes well at the top level apart from his lapses from time to time, the same as all the others. He's now into his sixth season and he should know better than try and justify usurping his team mate's race excellence in order to embellish his own performance. No matter how you cut it that's a dog act ..... IMO."

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8. Posted by Mad Matt, 23/07/2024 11:13

"Well, I know others have an even dimmer view of Lando after the weekend, personally I'm not too bothered as I never really thought him to be an angel. In the end he did what many will consider to be "the right thing" and as the coverage I was watching reminded us, he did something Seb Vettel, Michael Schumacher, Fernando etc. would never do.

Still, it gives us something to get in a stew about until the next race... which meteo.be currently seems to indicate will have a wet qualifying and a showery race :-)"

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"You've got to be selfish in this sport," says Norris

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