Oscar Piastri managed to have one of the best and worst races of his career on Sunday.
His start was stupendous – getting past Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and overtaking pole-sitter and teammate Lando Norris on the opening lap to lead the Hungarian Grand Pix.
After a rough start to his 2026 campaign, it looked like this was finally Piastri’s moment, a legitimate chance for a grand prix win or a podium.
Piastri managed to hold Norris at bay for nearly half the race. Then it all went pear-shaped.
McLaren decided to pit Piastri on lap 34 and chose to keep Norris out to avoid Lewis Hamilton undercutting the McLarens. Piastri came into the pits, but was later caught behind back markers (slower cars that are about to be lapped) including Carlos Sainz, who clipped his front wheel.
“Get out of the f—ing way, you idiot! Oh my God,” Piastri said over the radio.
Moments later, Norris – who stayed longer on his second set of tyres – was able to pit and emerged in front of Piastri.
The Australian’s race engineer informed Piastri over team radio that the collision with Sainz had cost him the lead of the race.
“Oh mate, just don’t **** talk to me now,” Piastri said in an uncharacteristic display of frustration.
Piastri proceeded to criticise McLaren’s strategy, pointing out they put him in a situation where he would encounter traffic.
“Nice of you guys to factor that one in by the way, thanks,” he said.
On lap 56, Piastri’s McLaren spluttered to a halt on the side of the track, with a suspected gearbox failure. With 14 laps to go, his race was over and the Australian added another DNF to his resume.
Norris went on to claim his maiden victory of the season, with Dutchman Max Verstappen in second and world championship leader Kimi Antonelli in third.
To say it’s been a challenging 2026 for Piastri would be an understatement.
The Australian crashed out of his home grand prix in March, falling victim to an unfortunate combination of cold tyres, torque spike and driver error. Then there were electrical issues in Shanghai, when his McLaren was unceremoniously towed from the grid before the formation lap.
There have been glimpses of a potential resurrection, with a podium finish in Miami and Japan and a close call in Austria, followed by contact with Charles Leclerc at the Belgium Grand Prix, dashing chances of a podium.
The Australian star also had to deal with increasing rumours around the safety of his seat amid reports Verstappen is seeking an end to his Red Bull tenure.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said it was good to see Norris and Piastri “fighting at the start for good position”, hailing it as “great racing”.
“Oscar had his own chance to take the lead and see what pace he might have had,” he told Sky Sports.
“How the race unfolded meant that with Oscar we then covered Hamilton and then there was some situation with the backmarkers. Lando was very quick once he had the lead and he took advantage of the pace and the fact that there was some delay for Oscar.
“That’s racing. We are McLaren racing. It was great racing.”
Speaking to media post-race, Piastri appeared more composed, and was his usual straightforward self.
“I’m feeling pretty disappointed,” he said.
“I feel like lap one was good, the first stint in general was reasonable and then struggled for pace on the hard … but I had track position, and I felt like even though I was struggling, it felt like I could hang on, but from that point on, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did.
“On the strategy side, you don’t plan a strategy for getting taken out by a backmarker. So I can’t blame the team at all for that.
“So [I’ll] try and improve over the break. Have a bit of time to reset and come back again.”
The F1 season will now go into a mid-year break before the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.
Earlier this weekend, the FIA announced Malaysia’s Sepang circuit would host a Formula 1 race for the first time since 2017 as replacement host of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The race will take place on October 4.
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Hannah Kennelly is an award-winning sports reporter and Formula 1 writer at The Age.Connect via email.
