Norris defends McLaren's decision "I didn't lose the win there"
F1 News
McLaren secured a 1-2 in Hungary, but it wasn't all plain sailing for them. After they chose to pit Norris before Piastri, Norris took the lead from his teammate. McLaren pleaded with the Brit for multiple laps, before Norris did give the place back to Piastri. Norris is supporting the decision of the team, and believes that isn't the reason he lost the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Norris: "Didn't give up the win"
After McLaren came under criticism for their decisions in Silverstone regarding pitstops, it is once again the talking point after Hungary. The papaya team chose to pit Norris before Piastri, despite the latter leading the race. Norris was then given instructions to let Piastri back through, which he ignored until lap 69/70. However, Norris believes that this is not what cost him a second race victory.
"I didn't give up the race win," Norris began; "I lost the race win off the line. So I know everyone's going to want to say that as a story that I gave up the race win. I didn't. I boxed first and naturally, you will always undercut. So the team gave me this position and I gave it back. Nothing more than that."
Norris defends McLaren's decision
When asked whether his team made the wrong call to pit him first instead of Piastri, Norris was quick to defend his team and once again stated that he lost the win at the start. "I didn't lose the win there. I lost the win off the line. I had a terrible start, not even a terrible start, just a bad start." Norris explained.
"Something happened on my second shift. I lost all my momentum. Oscar got to the inside and that was it. That was that got put into the lead rather than wanting to. I feel like we made things way too hard for ourselves and way too tricky for ourselves. We should have just boxed Oscar first and things would have been simple." The Brit admitted.
"But they gave me the lead and I gave it back. So I shouldn't have won today. I didn't deserve to win because of my start and Oscar's good start. And that's that. I was in that position for a while. It's hard when you're in that position to give it back because you're there and of course, it went through my mind. Seven points that I’m going to lose but I think the real fact is I shouldn't have had them in the first place. I shouldn't have had them in my hand. So the team were right and I stand by what they said."