Piastri 'reasonably happy' with Singapore podium despite delay to Norris

From one Grand Prix to another, at McLaren, when one driver performs, the other is behind. This was the case in Baku, to the advantage ofOscar piastri, and this was the case this weekend in Singapore, for Lando Norris this time. In the internal fight between the two drivers of the British team, it was the Englishman who got the better of the Australian on the Marina Bay circuit. When the first one imposed himself as boss, dominating throughout the Grand Prix, the second one managed to "limit the damage" by taking 3rd place, synonymous with a podium.

And yet, it was not a foregone conclusion for Oscar Piastri. On Friday, the double Grand Prix winner suffered a problem in the first minutes of FP1, and was far from his teammate's pace, conceding almost half a second. On Saturday, the Australian managed to correct the situation by posting the 5th fastest time in Q3, without reaching the impressive level of poleman Lando Norris, who was three tenths faster. “Over the weekend I struggled a lot in practice and felt like I made a good step forward in qualifying. I didn’t perform as well as I needed to, but I feel like I learned a lot throughout the weekend.”, he said at a press conference on Sunday.

Piastri, patience has paid off

Starting from the third line, Oscar Piastri played a game of patience behind the Mercedes, by extending his first stint as much as possible on medium tires, then attacking until the finish on hard tires that were fresher than those of the Silver Arrows. “It was difficult in the last few laps of the [first] stint, but up until then we had a good pace advantage over Mercedes. And the fact that Lewis went on the soft tyre meant I wasn’t really going to try to push to catch him early in the race. I knew the race was going to come to me much later, and that’s basically what we did.” Thanks to two great overtaking moves on the outside of Turn 7, the Melbourne native managed to get on the podium, an optimised result from starting from so far back... and without the intervention of the safety car.

"Even though the end result wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I think we did a good job maximizing the points, especially for the team., believes Oscar Piastri. I feel like I've learned some good lessons for next year. Overall, I'm reasonably happy. (…) [In qualifying] it wasn't ideal, but the goal was to get on the podium. And after losing so much time to the Mercedes in the first stint, it was certainly the most we could do. So we're reasonably happy. Of course, I would have preferred to be sitting in the middle [in the winner's seat]!

With this third place in Singapore, Oscar Piastri remains in the wake of Charles Leclerc in the Drivers' Championship with 237 points, 8 points less than the Monegasque. As for his chances of the title, on the other hand, if they were already very slim when arriving in Singapore, they have now become almost impossible, with a deficit of 94 points on Max Verstappen six rounds from the end of the season.

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