Zak Brown uses Hamilton defence as Rosberg grills McLaren boss over Norris

Zak Brown felt the heat from Nico Rosberg when quizzed on why Lando Norris was given the undercut on his team-mate Oscar Piastri during the Hungarian Grand Prix. The pair of McLarens locked out the second row on the grid and jumped ahead of Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap as the Mercedes star fought Max Verstappen.

Piastri remained ahead of Norris until the Brit was told to pit. The Aussie was pulled in himself the following lap but by the time he rejoined the race the McLaren drivers had switched positions.

Nico Rosberg felt it was ‘unfair’ on Piastri, who went on to finish in fifth place, while Norris was second to secure consecutive podiums for the first time in his career.

“That was not fair Zak,” Rosberg remarked after Brown was asked about the move.

The McLaren boss replied: “There was a conversation on the radio, we thought that was the best strategy for the team. We considered do we do something later in the race but we thought it was the best strategy for the team at the time to cover Lewis.

“Lewis came out and it looked like they were going to make a stop.”

Shortly before McLaren’s first pit stop, Hamilton complained about his rear tyres over the team radio and Mercedes mechanics in the pit lane were preparing for his arrival. However, the seven-time champion was just duping his rivals and forcing them to act.

Rosberg continued grill Brown, asking: “Shouldn’t you have just switched places though right afterwards?”

Brown added: “We wanted to see how the pace settled in on the new tyres. It’s something we talked about on the pit wall ‘let’s see where we are five laps from the end’.”

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It was then asked if Norris will get the priority call in every race. “No no no, that was just what we thought was the best strategy,” Brown insisted. “It was playing off what we thought Lewis was going to do.”

Norris has been linked with a move to Red Bull recently and Brown has explained how he plans to keep hold of the 23-year-old.

“The way you keep him is give him a good racing car,” he explained. “He loves the environment. He loves the team and has been on this journey, obviously we were all a bit frustrated at the start of the year, so as long as we keep doing that, he will stick around.”

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