Oscar Piastri’s season to forget has continued with the Australian finishing ninth at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid overnight on Monday morning (AEST).
Piastri endured another tough day behind the wheel, sustaining damage on his front wing endplate after making contact with George Russell twice on the opening lap after starting seventh.
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Piastri sounded frustrated on team radio when he queried why McLaren hadn’t repaired or replaced his front wing after a pit stop.
“Are you gonna fix my front wing or not?” he asked.
His engineer replied: “We can add three holes without the time loss of fixing it.”
“OK yes but tell me if you’re going to fix it next time.”
The Australian was driving a solid race but after his final pit stop with 15 laps remaining, came back out on track in heavy traffic as the trio of Arvid Lindblad, Franco Colapinto and Gabriel Bortoleto whizzed past him.
Piastri produced a superb lunging overtake on Lindblad but with overtaking difficult on the Madrid circuit, the timing of the pit stop didn’t help his chances.
“That’s not worked out well,” Martin Brundle said on Kayo Sports of Piastri, who is seventh in the standings.
“He’s not had a great weekend and he’s not having a great afternoon. The traffic has really hurt Piastri, hasn’t it.”
Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris started from pole position but lost the lead on lap 16/57 when he missed the pit entry for a cheap pit stop and had to do an extra lap during the virtual safety car period.
Norris then had a slow seven-second pit stop and came out in fifth place after dominating the early stages of the race.
“That is cruel luck,” David Croft said in commentary on Kayo Sports.
“That couldn’t have been worse for him” Martin Brundle said. “That’s turned it all on its head hasn’t it.”
Not pitting under the virtual safety car ultimately cruelled Norris’ race as Mercedes phenom Kimi Antonelli capitalised to win his eighth race of the season to extend his lead in the championship to 81 points.
Lando’s awkward exchange over can of coke
Norris piped up in a prickly exchange with an F1 official in the podium cooldown room when he grabbed a can of CocaCola to drink while watching the race highlights.
Antonelli pointed out to Norris he might get in trouble given the fizzy drink company does not sponsor McLaren or F1, and Pepsi is a partner of F1. But the reigning world champion was having none of it.
“I’ve just done a race so I’m allowed to drink whatever I like. Thank you so much,” he said to the official, giving a thumbs up.
Max Verstappen finished second ahead of Norris, but Antonelli is still very much the man to beat and the 20-year-old is on track to become the youngest ever Formula One world champion.
“Lucky with the virtual safety car,” the Italian said after the race
“Feel a bit bad for Lando but really strong race. Let’s keep pushing.”
Antonelli now has more career race victories than his teammate George Russell.
The ‘Madring’ circuit has 22 corners and it has ben likened to the Spanish Monaco, such is the narrow walls on parts of the track that make overtaking extremely difficult.
“This is the first year here, it’s a temporary racetrack,” Brundle said.
“I think they’ll make some tweaks for next year to create one or two more overtaking places. I’m pretty sure this will evolve into a really nice event.”
Lewis Hamilton was out of the race on lap 7 due to brake failure with his Ferrari
Madrid F1 Grand Prix results
1) Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
3) Lando Norris, McLaren
4) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
5) George Russell, Mercedes
6) Liam Lawson, Red Bull
7) Franco Colapinto, Alpine
8) Oscar Piastri, Red Bull
9) Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
10) Nico Hulkenberg, Audi