It was his last chance, but was it too early? Oscar Piastri explains why he made his decisive move against Lando Norris
Did Oscar Piastri launch his attack on Lando Norris one lap too early in the Formula 1 race in Hungary? The Australian attacked his McLaren teammate Lando Norris in the penultimate lap in turn 1, but was a bit too far behind and just managed to avoid a collision with smoking wheels.
However, he lost a little time in the process and was unable to attack as hard in turn 1 on the final lap. The championship leader does not regret his attack, though: “I felt like it was my best chance,” he explains. “You never want to say, ‘I’ll save it for the next lap,’ and then that chance never comes.”
“So I thought I’d at least give it a try – and yes, it wasn’t quite enough.” According to his own statement, he would have had to be one or two tenths closer to do so. “And that would have meant that Lando would have had to make a mistake.”
He doesn’t think his braking error cost him another attack anyway, as the Australian was able to quickly close the gap to Norris. The problem was something else: “Getting to six or seven tenths was doable – but not any closer. I would have needed a brand new set of softs for that,” he says.
“It was always difficult once I was close. But when an opportunity arises, you want to take it – because you might not get another one. So I had to try,” said Piastri. “Sure, in hindsight, you could say I should have waited a lap – but I’m pretty sure nothing would have changed.”
Before Piastri caught up with Norris on his newer hard tires, he was confident about the duel with his teammate, who had significantly older tires on his car due to his one-stop strategy. “But I also knew it would be extremely difficult. Because getting close is one thing, overtaking is another.
“I caught up with him significantly when I had a clear run, but as soon as I was on him, it was brutally difficult to stay close enough. There are so many corners in the second sector that sometimes you almost feel like you’re taking a corner really well, but then you’re too close in the next section and you lose out again. That makes it very difficult,” he explains.
“And with the long corners at the end of the lap, you just lose all your downforce. Even if I’d had a few more laps, I’m not sure it would have changed the result. But I definitely gave it a shot.”
In the end, he was narrowly beaten and lost seven points of his championship lead. “Whenever you lose a race by such a small margin, it’s obviously a bit painful. But I’m sure it was exciting from the outside—and it was from the inside too.”
