Piastri rues missed opportunity after Hamilton impedes final qualifying lap in Hungary

Oscar Piastri believes McLaren had the pace to qualify much higher for the Hungarian Grand Prix after his final Q3 flying lap was ruined by a slow-moving Lewis Hamilton.

The Australian had looked increasingly competitive throughout the weekend, making steady gains from Friday's practice sessions into Saturday's final practice and qualifying. As the decisive moments of Q3 approached, Piastri appeared on course to improve again, only to encounter Hamilton's Ferrari on the racing line at Turn 1.

Forced to abandon his final attempt, Piastri had to settle for fifth with a best lap of 1:17.684. He expressed his frustration immediately after the incident with a sarcastic thumbs-up directed at Hamilton, who was later penalised by the stewards after qualifying, promoting the McLaren driver up the starting order.

Despite the disappointment, Piastri was encouraged by the progress McLaren has made with its latest upgrade package, which helped the team secure pole position through team-mate Lando Norris.

"We had more in us and we had good performance in the car but were impeded by Hamilton at Turn 1, so I didn't get to do my final flying lap," Piastri said.

"I felt like we had made good progress throughout FP3 and into each Qualifying session, especially with the new package, so it was a shame to not be able to show our full potential."

Although he missed the chance to challenge for the front rows, Piastri took encouragement from McLaren's overall competitiveness and praised both the team and Norris after the Briton claimed his first pole position of the 2026 season.

"It's encouraging to see Lando on Pole, so congratulations to him, and to see that we are making progress with performance, so we can take positives from that," he added.

"The team have done a great job with the latest package, so we will keep pushing on that front to keeping find more and more lap time."

Looking ahead to Sunday's race, Piastri acknowledged that overtaking at the Hungaroring is notoriously difficult but remains optimistic that a strong opening lap could put him in contention for a podium finish.

"Looking ahead to tomorrow, we will try and get a good start and see what we can do," he said "Overtaking here is tricky, but we will give it everything and aim for the podium."