McLaren boss Andrea Stella insists he would be “extremely concerned” if Lando Norris had not questioned team order to let Oscar Piastri through

McLaren boss Andrea Stella said that far from being upset by Lando Norris’ initial refusal to follow pit wall instructions and let his team-mate through for victory on Sunday, he would have been “very concerned” if the Briton had simply let Oscar Piastri through without a word of complaint.

Pole-sitter Norris fell behind team-mate Oscar Piastri early in Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring, with the Australian managing to build up a comfortable advantage and maintain the lead through the first round of pit stops.

READ MORE > MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: Why did McLaren crash Norris before Piastri – and did they really need to?

However, with McLaren later feeling threatened by the power of the undercut from the cars behind, they opted to bring Norris in for fresh tyres before Piastri during the second sequence of stops – leading to the two cars swapping positions given the mismatch in pace.

Piastri’s race engineer told him not to worry about how the situation developed, and Norris was asked to pull aside and relinquish P1 given he had gained it in the pit lane, but the Briton initially questioned the call and showed some reluctance.

Eventually, thanks to repeated entreaties from engineer Will Joseph, who reminded him of McLaren’s pre-race meetings, Norris backed off and let Piastri through, but it was a moment that sparked much debate among spectators.