Oscar Piastri tried to limit the damage for McLaren after a botched qualifying. Due to a mistake in the final Q3 attempt, the Australian only started in ninth place. In the race, he only had the opportunity to limit the damage. With seventh place, Piastri brings six points back to Woking. At least he managed to hold his own against Sergio Perez.
Oscar Piastri: Difficult weekend since the first round
The Formula 1 weekend got off to a difficult start for Piastri. In the free practice sessions he couldn’t really keep up with the pace of his teammate Lando Norris. The big mistake followed in qualifying and Piastri also had a difficult time in the race. Ultimately, after 66 laps, he was 30 seconds behind his teammate. Admittedly, the traffic in the midfield may have played a part in this.
“The pace was a little better towards the end of the race compared to Carlos, but overall it was a difficult day,” summed up Piastri. He was only two seconds behind the Spaniard in front of him – and that was despite Alpine traffic for Piastri.
“If we had passed the Alpines quicker, we might have been able to fight with Mercedes and Ferrari. But we didn’t pass Gasly quick enough,” said Piastri.
“It’s a bit unusual how many problems we’ve had on my side of the garage. In the last few weeks we’ve hit the nail right on the button and been able to build on that. That just didn’t happen this time for some reason. We had problems all weekend, even in practice,” explains Piastri.
Piastri satisfied with McLaren performance: That is encouraging!
Despite being far behind his teammate, Norris can still point to positive aspects of the weekend. “The second half of the race was positive, but only a little bit positive,” said Piastri.
The performance of the car stands out more clearly. This weekend, the McLaren was once again capable of winning, if not the fastest car in the field. Lando Norris ultimately threw away his chance of winning at the start. Oscar Piastri can also make use of the McLaren’s performance in the next races.
“The fact that Lando was fast on a track that is very different from the rest is very encouraging. There are a lot more fast corners here, the asphalt is smoother and he still almost won. I just need to find that pace.”