Oscar Piastri believes his qualifying result cost him victory at the Belgian Grand Prix after recovering from fifth on the grid to eventually be classified second.
George Russell originally led home a Mercedes 1-2 ahead of Lewis Hamilton, but Russell was later disqualified for having an underweight car, with excessive tire wear on a one-stop strategy understood to be a potential factor. Speaking before Russell’s penalty was announced and having crossed the line 1.1s behind the winner in third, Piastri says it was a good recovery from a tough qualifying spot.
“I’m pretty happy on the whole,” Piastri said. “I think it was a really well executed race. Clearly the one-stop was a possibility and I think there’s [probably] a lot of people out there kicking themselves that they didn’t consider it more.
“But no, I think we executed a great race, had a quick car and ultimately just didn’t put it in the right position in qualifying yesterday. I think, given where we started, very happy. Ultimately I think there was a bit more potential this weekend.
“It did cross my mind [to one-stop], but not seriously enough. I was amazed at how much difference the dirty air made today. I think when Lewis and Charles [Leclerc] pitted for the second stop, I think I went like 1s faster just because I had clean air.
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“That was impressive, but then it felt like it kind of degged a little bit again after that point. With 16 laps, I think it was, or 15 laps around Spa, it felt like a pretty big risk to try and go to the end.
“I knew that even with the tire advantage that we were building up, that we had a strong chance to try and win the race anyway that way. So maybe we should have considered the one-stop a little bit more. With the two-stop, I think we did a good job of capitalizing on it. Just unfortunately, on my side, didn’t give us the track position in qualifying.”
Piastri had a slow final pit stop when he overshot his pit box slightly and the McLaren pit crew had to readjust, but he believes that was the only error in what he rates as one of his best race performances overall.
“I would say so — I’m not sure my front jack man agrees!” he said. “But no, I think it was a really strong race. I think to try and get past Charles was not easy, and I think if I didn’t manage to do it on that lap, I probably would have been stuck there for a long time. That was a pretty pivotal moment of the race.
“The pace was very strong, so I felt very, very good this weekend. Even on Friday, the pace looked really strong. Just kicking myself a little bit that I didn’t get qualifying right, but I think it was a very strong weekend and probably one of my one of my better races.”