Oscar Piastri admits ‘painful’ feeling after narrow loss to Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri admitted it was “painful” to lose out on the Hungarian Grand Prix win after he was pipped to the post by Lando Norris.

McLaren’s split of strategy proved to be to Piastri’s downfall as the Melbournian’s two-stop approach could not overcome Norris‘ one stop.

Oscar Piastri reacts to Hungarian GP victory miss

It means Piastri’s lead has been reduced to nine points heading into F1’s summer break and the 24-year-old admitted it was “painful” to lose by such narrow margins.

“Mixed, I would say,” he said of his emotions. “You know, whenever you lose a race by such a little amount, it’s obviously a bit painful, but I mean, I’m sure it was entertaining from the outside. It was entertaining from the inside as well. So, you know, pretty fun race, all things considered.

“But, obviously, when you’re on the losing side of that battle, it’s a little bit difficult. But, yeah, we tried our best, I think, and, you know, we got ahead of Charles. I don’t know what happened to him in the last stint, but, yeah, some things to look back on, whether we should have done something a bit different in terms of strategy, but very easy to say in hindsight.”

Even during the race, it was clear that Piastri saw Norris, not leader Charles Leclerc, as his main threat and while Piastri thought it would be “incredibly tough” to pass his McLaren team-mate, he was confident he could do it.

“I was confident, but I knew it was going to be still incredibly tough because getting close to the car ahead is one thing, but trying to overtake is a completely different story.

“I knew that I was catching him a lot when I had clean air, but as soon as I got close, it was incredibly tough to stay close enough. There are so many corners in the middle sector that in some cases it almost feels like you do a better job in some corners, and then you pay the price at the next one because you’re even closer.

“That made it very tough. And then with such long corners to end the lap, it just kills any downforce you’ve got. So, I knew that was going to be incredibly tough. Even if I had more laps, I’m not sure the result would have been any different, but I certainly tried.”

Piastri’s final attempt came in the penultimate lap when he looked to get by in Turn 1, only to slam on the brakes and lock up. However, he was convinced that did not cost him the win.

“Not that much, I don’t think,” he said of the lock up’s impact. “I was able to close the gap again pretty quickly for the last lap. But it’s kind of like I said, getting to within six or seven tenths was doable, but to then get even closer than that, I think I needed brand new Softs to be able to do much from that point.

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“So, yeah, it was always going to be tough when I got close. But, I mean, you never want to not take an opportunity that you think is there in case another one never comes up. So, I had to go for it and, you know, in hindsight, obviously you can say maybe I should have waited another lap, but I’m pretty convinced that even if I had waited one more lap, it wouldn’t have changed anything.”

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