Oscar Piastri painted a bleak picture of his title chances after the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Australian’s poor run of form continued in Nevada when a lap one incident consigned him to fourth, or so thought, while his team-mate Lando Norris was initially on the podium. But, disaster struck post-race for McLaren, with both Norris and Piastri disqualified due to excessive plank wear.
Oscar Piastri gives title update after Las Vegas GP
Time is quickly running out for Piastri to snap out of an extended period of poor results that stretches back six races and after the latest grand prix in Vegas, he trails Norris by 24 points with just two weekends remaining.
Asked about his title chances, Piastri said it “is what it is” and suggested his focus was instead on simply getting “good results on the board.”
“Obviously, I need more than that now,” he told Sky of his original P4 finish. “So I’m just going to go into the next two weeks trying to be as prepared as I can. Have the best weekends I can.
“[It would] be nice to get some good results on the board to finish the year. But the championship picture is what it is.
“We’ll see what I can do.”
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Piastri’s race began poorly when Liam Lawson crashed into the side of him, although the stewards deemed it a racing incident and the New Zealander escaped unpunished. After Gabriel Bortoleto also hit Lance Stroll, Piastri said it felt like he was the only one who braked into Turn 1.
“I felt like I was one of the only people that actually braked to make the corner and got barged out of the way,” he lamented. “And that’s fine. It is what it is.
“I think the rest of the race was eventful after that as well, few too many mistakes.
“From start to finish, just felt like there were some tough moments through the race. I felt like it was good moments of pace. Like in clean air, we were really quick, but just difficult before I got the clean air, and difficult after it ran out.
“It’s maybe not my favourite circuit of the year, but I’ve got plenty of tracks that aren’t my favourites that have been good this year, so I don’t think it’s anything to do with that.
“Just dodging [others]. Pretty bad start. Took a while to find the rhythm, and then just got stuck behind [Kimi] Antonelli then for a long time as well, which hampered our pace.”
Las Vegas GP winner Max Verstappen moved level on points with Piastri after that result, coupled with McLaren’s double disqualification. It means that both Verstappen and Piastri sit 24 points behind Norris with two grands prix and a Sprint remaining.
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