Oscar piastri was leading at the end of the first lap, ahead of his teammate Lando Norris, whom he overtook in the second chicane. But the Australian ultimately lost after 53 laps of the Italian Grand Prix.
The reason: McLaren chose a two-stop strategy, where Ferrari, in a position to take risks, went all out with just one pit stop. A choice that paid off for the Reds.
Oscar Piastri had more than ten laps to catch up with the two Italian cars that were leading the race in the final stages of the Grand Prix. The young McLaren driver managed to overtake Carlos Sainz (who was also passed by Norris afterwards), but was unable to catch up Charles Leclerc, on which he was 2 seconds behind. Enough to frustrate him.
« It hurts a lot, the Australian said. There were a lot of good things today, but we asked ourselves a lot of questions about the strategy during the race. With the position and the degradation of the tires we had, making a single stop seemed risky. I'm very happy with the pace we had, with the race I managed to do. I missed a few seconds, it's painful. »
« I told the team that we had to make a second stop, continues Oscar Piastri. Everyone is a legend on Monday, after the race, it's always easier than the weekend. Today we made a mistake, I have my share of responsibility for that. We had everything to lose since we were first, Charles was able to try something different, he was going to finish third at worst. The Medium tires were destroying themselves, the Hards, which the Red Bull at first, seemed dead. My left front was damaged, we didn't expect it to perform again. But that's what happened with Ferraris, so yeah... It's painful. »
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Yves-Henri RANDIER
01/09/2024 at 06:14 a.m.
He pulled a face during the post-arrival interview with Rosberg and the 2 McLaren Boys were tense on the podium. Too bad for Piastri who certainly wanted to triumph on the lands of his distant ancestors!