How McLaren pulled off 'pretty slim' chance strategy gamble that defied odds and robbed Oscar Piastri

McLaren has denied setting Australian Oscar Piastri up for failure, explaining teammate Lando Norris defied expectations to take out the Hungarian Grand Prix on Monday morning (AEST).

Piastri's two-stop strategy fell just short of victory at the Hungaroring, with Norris' alternative one-stop strategy prevailing in a dramatic finish.

Despite starting on the front row of the grid, Piastri ultimately lost out to Norris because of their difference in pit stop strategy.

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Norris qualified in third position and, after a shaky race start, which saw him briefly fall to fifth on the first lap, settled into fourth behind Mercedes' George Russell.

Losing time to race leaders Charles Leclerc and Piastri, it was decided that Norris would commit to a one-stop strategy, making his tyres last for a long final stint to hopefully hold track position.

Meanwhile, Piastri pitted for his first stop in an attempt to undercut the Ferrari of Leclerc, which did not come off.

As everyone pitted in front of Norris, he inherited the lead.

Norris then made his set of medium tyres last until lap 32 of the 70-lap grand prix before switching out for hards, and holding competitive pace early in the stint.

When Piastri pitted for the second time on lap 46, he rejoined with 12 seconds to close down on Norris with 25 laps remaining.

While Piastri's fresher tyres saw him chase down Norris in the closing stages of the race, he was unable to move past the Briton, whose tyres still had something to give.

Speaking afterwards, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella revealed that the team did not plan for a one-stop strategy, believing it was not a winning approach.

"Our baseline strategy was a two-stop strategy," Stella said.

"We did not necessarily think a one-stop was possible, so we went with the two-stop for Oscar to try and pass Leclerc in the first stop. Then we tried to extend in the second stop to have a tyre delta, and this worked.

"When we extended, leaving Lando out [on track], we did not think the one-stop would have been possible. But, credit to Lando, he put together some very strong sectors and lap times with used tyres, so we convinced ourselves the one-stop was starting to get into the game as we progressed with the first stint.

"We did not enter the race with a one or a two-stop. We thought the two-stop would be the strategy."

Facing the challenge of managing two highly competitive drivers who are both championship contenders, McLaren has allowed Piastri and Norris to race freely so far this season.

However, chief executive Zak Brown previously declared that the team would rather lose this year's drivers' championship than show favouritism towards one of their drivers' world championship tilts.

In his first victory adopting the alternative strategy, Norris confessed that the team's thinking behind his one-stop strategy was to hope for a safety car or virtual safety car (VSC) during his long stint to help him compete at the front.

"When [my engineer] Will asked me, 'What do you think of the one-stop?' I think at that point, I was already, like, seven seconds behind Oscar and eight or nine behind Charles," he said.

"Not that I thought my race was over, but it was pretty slim that I was going to be able to at least fight from there, even on a perfect two-stop strategy. So, my expectations were not high, but I was banking more on a safety car or a VSC or something to bring me back into the race.

"I knew I could make the tyres get to the end quite easily, but it was more to stay ahead of other people. It was trying to get ahead of mainly George and Charles at that point. I didn't have a lot of hope that I'd still be in a fight with Oscar till the very end, but [it] turned out to be."

While a safety car never came for Norris, the competing strategies set up a battle for the lead with six laps remaining.

Desperate to take the chequered flag, Piastri made several attempts to pass and had half a look in going into turn one with three laps remaining, but could not get close enough to make the move stick.

Then, on the penultimate lap, and with one roll of the dice left on the difficult-to-pass circuit, he threw the car into the first corner but locked up a wheel, just avoiding a collision with Norris, who left room on the inside.

With the benefit of hindsight, Piastri did not know whether a different choice of strategy would have been more successful.

"[It's] very difficult to know from the cockpit what is going to be the best thing to do," he said.

"When you're the car behind, your risk-reward ratio is always much different. There's always that.

"Could we have matched Lando? That's, I guess, the question that I don't have the answer to. So, I guess that's the only thing."

Picking up his fifth grand prix victory of the season, Norris cut Piastri's lead in the drivers' championship to nine points going into the sport's mid-year break.

Ten rounds remain when Formula 1 resumes at the end of the month with the Dutch Grand Prix.