Oscar Piastri admitted it was “absolutely fair” when McLaren asked him to let Lando Norris in front of him at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Tags: Lando Norris McLaren Oscar Piastri Published 03/24/2024 — GPF1.cz
Norris and Piastri finished third and fourth in Melbourne behind Ferrari pair Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc following McLaren asked Piastri to swap positions with Norris before the halfway point of the race.
The Australian regretted losing the podium in front of his home crowd, but admitted the change was fair as he was able to overtake his team-mate through the pits (undercut) at the start of the race and Norris was faster on fresher tyres.
“For me it was absolutely fair,” Piastri said. “Yesterday he qualified in front of me, at the first stop he drove a bit longer and at that moment he was catching up to me and was faster. At that point I was holding on to Leclerc and Lando was catching up to both of us so I was honestly kind of hoping he would pass me and go and get Charles. Of course, at home I would be happy if I might stay third. But for me it was absolutely fair.”
Norris duly pulled away from Piastri and closed in on Leclerc, but he didn’t have what it took to overtake the Ferrari and said the undercat in the first series of pit stops was the moment he lost his chance of second place.
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Piastri said he was encouraged by McLaren’s strong weekend, but equally frustrated by his own mistakes. In the penultimate corner of the middle stint, he went off the track, which he described as his own “slap”, and he did not drive the cleanest qualifying lap on Saturday.
“I think it was a strong weekend for me. A few mistakes when it mattered, which is a bit frustrating, but it was a solid result today,” he added. “Halfway through the second stint, I went off the track a bit and also shredded the tires a bit, so I struggled a bit in that part of the race. I just am them [pněumatiky] he mightn’t get back into shape, so I have to learn, go through some things and see what I might have done a little bit better. Other than that, it was a pretty strong day.
The pace of Sergio Perez was honestly the biggest surprise for me. I expected him to come through and he didn’t. So that’s probably a bit of optimism for everyone else on the grid.”
