Piastri makes sly dig at McLaren as team-mate Norris gains ground in title race
Oscar Piastri criticised his McLaren engineers for their tactics during the Emilia Romanga Grand Prix as team-mate Lando Norris capitalised to gain ground in the title race. Piastri had started the race at Imola on pole position but lost his lead at the first corner to Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman raced off into the sunset and sealed an easy victory as he continues to mount a spirited title defence. Piastri was unable to really challenge Verstappen, with a number of strategy calls failing to pay off.
His first pit stop saw him drop behind a number of slower cars, ruining any chance he had of undercutting Verstappen. The Australian was also not brought in to stop under a late safety car, with Norris taking full advantage of his tyre superiority to overtake him and claim second place.
It means that Norris is now just 13 points behind Piastri in the drivers' championship heading into next weekend's Monaco Grand Prix. Piastri had won four of the opening six rounds, including the last three in succession before Sunday's race.
That run is now over though, with Piastri even conceding that Williams star Alexander Albon may well have overtaken him had he managed to cleanly pass Ferrari's Charles Leclerc earlier on. The Australian admitted he had made an error in not defending adequately against Verstappen, but he also pointed to a number of mistakes by his McLaren strategists.
"Just braked too early, it was a good move by Max as well. Disappointing obviously, and then we made a few wrong calls after that. Not our best Sunday, lots to look at and review after that one. We'll see what we can do a bit better," Piastri said.
"It was tricky, the VSC was perfectly timed for Max and Lando, and I had used both my tyres at that point so it made my last race start tricky, I didn't have enough grip so third it is."
Former Williams star Jacque Villeneuve issued a brutal assessment of McLaren's strategy during Sunday's race. He accused the British team of being 'weak' in not allowing Norris to pass Piastri earlier.
"They show weakness," he told Sky Sports. "Basically, they don't show the strength that Red Bull are always showing year after year. It's as if they're afraid to be aggressive in trying to win the drivers' championship and they're afraid to go against Piastri.
"It's really, really odd. Piastri messed up that first corner. He got caught out sleeping. He should never have come out of the corner second and then he didn't have the pace, which was odd. Norris had more pace.
"On the restart, McLaren knew that it was a matter of laps before Norris would have taken Piastri with the tyre difference, it was obvious. 100% sure he would get ahead, so why make him lose three laps instead of giving him a shot at Verstappen?
"Because Verstappen is in for the championship. You don't want to give Verstappen wins. That's more points for him in the drivers' championship. They seem to be happy with second and third. McLaren has a car where a good weekend means first and second. Anything less is a bit disappointing. First and third is fairly acceptable, but they seem happy with second and third."
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