Hungarian GP: Radio outburts reveal Verstappen, Norris under pressure

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris did little to enhance their reputations on Sunday when a calm and mostly assured drive by Oscar Piastri set an example and carried him to a controversial victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

On a day when teams' radio transmissions of dialogue with their drivers over-shadowed an intriguing race, the tetchy and sometimes outright rude behaviour of the two leading championship contenders set a dismal example. It also offered evidence that both struggle to cope with the pressures of expectation as their teams, Red Bull and McLaren, vie for the constructors' championship.

Defending champions Red Bull hold a diminishing lead as their rivals reel them in. Three-time champion Verstappen stayed up until three in the morning to compete in a late-night session of on-line simulated racing before the race.

He was not at his sunniest on Sunday. Tetchy, irritable and abusive, he finished a frustrated fifth after a poor performance highlighted by his profanity-riddled outbursts at race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, a collision with Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and a vulgar post-race response to his critics.

While McLaren demonstrated all-round performance in qualifying and race, to lock out the front row, it was Piastri's composure that caught the eye as he became Australia's fifth winner of a GP. By requesting Norris to move aside ‘at your convenience.' McLaren invited him to consider his options. It was to his credit he conceded the team was more important than title ambitions as he ‘sacrificed' seven points. McLaren will learn. So, too, Norris.

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