Oscar Piastri ‘broken’ Brundle claim after Qatar title blow

Martin Brundle observed a “broken” Oscar Piastri after a McLaren strategy mishap cost the Australian driver victory at the Qatar Grand Prix.

It is a result which has put Piastri firmly on the back foot in the title race with just Abu Dhabi to come. He has fallen to third behind Max Verstappen in the standings, and is 16 points behind Norris with 25 available in Abu Dhabi.

Martin Brundle observed ‘broken’ Oscar Piastri

Piastri has seen his title challenge spiral in recent weeks, but he steadied the ship in Qatar, and it looked as though he was heading for a pivotal result just in the nick of time.

Having controlled the Sprint from pole, Piastri once again claimed the P1 grid slot for the Grand Prix, and looked to be the quickest driver out there.

However, McLaren went against the grain in not pitting either Piastri or Norris when the Safety Car came out on Lap 7 of the race.

Due to the 25-lap tyre life limit in place for safety reasons, it meant that drivers could take a ‘free’ pit stop behind the Safety Car, and then be locked into two stints of 25 laps to the chequered flag.

McLaren, meanwhile, would need to service each driver twice under normal race conditions.

The big winner was Verstappen, who Piastri attempted to hunt down in the final stint. But, Verstappen remained out of reach, securing a third win in his last five grands prix, thus inserting himself firmly into the title battle going into Abu Dhabi.

Brundle was on commentary and punditry duties for Sky F1 in Qatar, and also hosted the traditional post-race interviews with the top three drivers, which featured a dejected Piastri.

“I was trying to get some words out of Oscar after the race,” Brundle noted on Sky F1. “He was broken, because he’s dominated this weekend.

“He’s comfortably the fastest driver around this track in his McLaren.”

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Speaking in the post-race press conference, Piastri confirmed that the frustration levels were “pretty high” after a much-improved race weekend concluded on such a bitter note.

“We didn’t get it right today, which is a shame because the whole weekend went very, very well,” he added. “We had a lot of pace. I felt like I drove well. So, yeah, it’s pretty painful.”

So much so, the pain outweighed what went down in Las Vegas one week prior. Both Piastri and Norris were excluded from the results due to excessive plank wear.

“I think on a personal level, I feel like I’ve lost a win today,” Piastri noted. “In Vegas, I lost a P4. Obviously, for the team, it was a pretty painful weekend. But, yeah, I think for me personally, this probably hurts more.”

Piastri will look to lick his wounds and come back stronger for the all-important Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. As the dust settles on Qatar, Piastri believes that his pace will be something which shines through more as a major positive.

“I think in the next few days, probably, yes, that will be quite an encouraging thing,” he confirmed. “I think this weekend is probably one of my best of the season. There are one or two others that I can think of being on the same level as this weekend.

“So, from that side of things, I’m very, very happy and very pleased to just be back in terms of pace.

“But unfortunately, it’s another weekend where something’s just not gone our way.”

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