Oscar Piastri’s miserable season took another brutal turn at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where the Australian’s shot at victory unravelled in spectacular fashion.
Starting third, Piastri made a superb getaway and snatched the lead on the opening lap. From there, he was firmly in the fight for the win, but his afternoon fell apart through a string of setbacks that left him angrier than he has appeared all year.
Lando Norris had begun from pole, but after Piastri moved ahead, the reigning world champion complained over team radio that he had superior pace. McLaren stuck to its papaya rules, however, and backed the car in front.
The turning point came in the latter stages when Williams driver Carlos Sainz made contact with Piastri as the Australian tried to work through backmarkers. Furious, Piastri erupted on team radio.
“Is he ***ing stupid or what? Get out of the ***ing way, you idiot! Oh my God,” an apoplectic Piastri exclaimed on team radio.
Martin Brundle immediately summed up the damage in commentary on Kayo Sports, saying: “That might have just cost him the grand prix.”
Sainz received a five-second penalty, but Piastri’s anger was not limited to the collision. He was also unhappy with McLaren over the timing of a pit stop that dropped him back into heavy traffic.
After his engineer said, “Oscar, that’s Sainz that cost us that. Target is to get to the end on this tyre,” Piastri snapped back: “Mate, just don’t **** talk to me now. Nice of you guys to factor that one in by the way, thanks.”
The clash with Sainz and the pit sequence opened the door for Norris, who stopped a few laps later and then vaulted into the lead before driving away to his first win since becoming world champion last year.
Brundle interpreted Piastri’s frustration clearly.
“He’s saying ‘you’ve put me out into traffic, you’ve allowed my teammate to run long and get past me’,” Brundle said.
Then came the final blow. With 14 laps to go, Piastri radioed, “I lost the gearbox” before pulling off and retiring from the race.
“Oh this is just horrible for him,” commentator David Croft said.
Norris went on to win from Max Verstappen and championship leader Kimi Antonelli, while Piastri was left to wonder what might have been as a third podium of the season slipped away. His retirement also triggered a virtual safety car, which handed Norris a free pit stop on the way to a commanding 15-second victory over Verstappen.
After the race, Piastri made it clear he had little sympathy for Sainz.
“He was fighting Fernando (Alonso) for last place like it was the world championship.
“He’s quite critical of others, and others have given him stick before for being frustrating on track.
“When you go and do something like that I think maybe you should look in the mirror a bit.”
He continued: “I couldn’t believe what happened. Getting crashed into by a lapped car is never one of the things you expect that can go wrong in your race, and today it was, so I don’t really care if he didn’t see me.
“The fact that he didn’t and no one told him, or there was a lack of complete awareness, is unacceptable.”
Piastri was just as blunt when speaking to Viaplay.
“That’s got to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen on a race track,” Piastri told Viaplay. “I don’t really care what excuse he gave.”
Sainz did not fully apologise, instead offering his own explanation.
“I had no idea I was about to get lapped, and on top of that, I was in a big fight with Fernando trying to undercut him into the corner.
“I wouldn’t have expected Oscar to be there, and even if he was there or I would have expected he was on my dead spot on the angle, so it was impossible honestly from my side to avoid it.
“Probably a bit better communication would have helped, but at the same time (it was) a racing thing.”
Reflecting on the race more broadly, Piastri said his aggressive first-lap move had at least provided one bright moment.
“It was definitely the highlight of my race and it went pretty downhill from there.” a calmer Piastri said of his lap 1 move after the race.
“A lot of things to unpack. Firstly, the pace on the hard tyres was nowhere, and then obviously getting taken out by a backmarker is never really one of the things you think can go wrong. But I was proven wrong. Then obviously the gearbox, so not the easiest of days.
“I was crashed into by Carlos and, in the moment, I was hoping maybe they would not pit Lando because of that incident to at least give me the chance to stay in the lead but I think that’s not very reasonable.
“I was just more very upset in the moment about what had happened. I think the timing of my pit stop was fine.”
Early in the race, with Norris applying pressure, Piastri had been urged to pick up the pace.
Conscious of avoiding a repeat of earlier strategy controversies, the team told him to hurry and “use the pace” available to him. His response reflected his struggles on the tyres.
“Yeah, I don’t really have any. The car’s been super inconsistent on this tyre,” Piastri replied.
Norris, by contrast, made his speed clear over the radio.
“I’m miles faster … I’ll put out a 10-second gap”
Once he had clean air at the front, he converted that pace into victory, later saying Piastri had done well to fight back ahead after the opening-lap exchange.
“Oscar did a good job to get the cut back and get back past. I think I was just a bit wide in the dirt, and game over for the first lap,” Norris said post-race.
“But I was pushing like hell to try to force him into a mistake or something. My pace today was probably some of the best pace I’ve ever had. The car was beautiful to drive and I felt very confident, so a great race.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella described the outcome for Piastri as unfortunate, while insisting the team had managed the contest properly.
“Lando gained the time thanks to his pace and to some extent this loss with the backmarkers is just an unlucky situation,” Stella said.
“So it’s racing. It was fair racing. Some of the good racing we saw last year.
“We have two great drivers and hopefully we will be contention for these positions over the rest of the season.”
The result adds to what has been a grim campaign for Piastri. He could not even start the opening two races of the year in Melbourne and China because of car issues, with McLaren having been compromised after prioritising last season’s title battle over the 2026 car.
This was the fifth time in 2026 that Piastri has failed to score, and he now sits seventh in the standings heading into Formula 1’s mid-season summer break. It is also nearly a year since his most recent victory, which came at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix.
Antonelli leads the championship by 50 points from Hamilton and by 59 points from Mercedes teammate George Russell. Norris is fifth overall, 36 points clear of Piastri.
