Piastri ran second behind Charles Leclerc in the opening part of the race and was the first of the leaders to stop, attempting an undercut that ultimately did not pay dividends.
He remained behind Leclerc until the second round of stops, where McLaren kept him out longer to try an overcut — but even that wasn’t enough to jump the Ferrari.
It wasn’t until a move on-track that Piastri cleared Leclerc, but by that stage Norris had leapfrogged both on a one-stop strategy.
The Australian quickly closed the gap to his teammate in the final stint but couldn’t find a way past despite a committed late lunge into Turn 1, which drew a warning from the McLaren pit wall.
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“Going into the race, we thought a two-stop was the best thing to do,” Piastri said post-race.
“In clean air potentially it still was, but… having a two-stop race in clean air versus dirty air is a different story.
“So it’s very easy now to say that a one-stopper was the way to go, but, you know, one second different and the answer would be very different.
“So yeah, some things to analyse with the team, but overall I thought it was a good day.”
McLaren CEO Zak Brown confirmed the strategy decision was made with Piastri’s input during the race.
“We were talking to him on the radio to kind of give him the choice, do you want to race Lando or race Charles, and he wanted to race Lando, which is understandable,” Brown said.
“You just had two different strategies there that converged… Oscar was faster there at the end, just couldn’t get by.”
Despite the failed late move and visible frustration over team radio, Piastri defended the attempt.
“I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando go for a one [stopper] I knew I would have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done,” said Piastri.
“I felt like that was going to be my best chance, so I thought I would at least try, but not quite.”
Norris claimed his fifth win of the season in Hungary, securing McLaren’s 200th Formula 1 victory.
It was also McLaren’s fourth consecutive 1-2 finish — only the second time in the team’s history they have achieved such a streak, and the first since 1988 when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were teammates.
Asked by Sky Sports if he was frustrated to miss out on the win, Piastri kept his response measured, focusing instead on the bigger picture.
“I think just doing mostly what we’ve been doing,” he said when asked what he’d focus on over the break.
“The pace has been very good… it’s going to be a tight battle all the way to the end.”
Brown lauded the result, calling it a near-perfect result.
“I think everyone will sleep well tonight,” he said. “[It’s] a great way to go into the summer break.
“I got to say, you’re never perfect in a race, so we’ll go back, and of course, we’ll go maybe we could’ve done this. But I think it was about as close to perfect as you get.
“The drivers were awesome. The pit stops amazing. Strategy was great to get Lando up there. Oscar drove brilliantly. I just couldn’t be prouder of this racing team.”
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