Oscar Piastri has admitted the track limits saga which cost him third on the grid fuelled his surge through the field to claim second in Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.
McLaren’s status as Red Bull’s nearest challenger continued at the Red Bull Ring as Lando Norris pressured Max Verstappen into instigating a clash between the two.
Piastri could have been in the prime position to capitalise on their squabble had his fastest qualifying time not been overruled due to a track limits violation at Turn 6.
Instead, George Russell’s Mercedes took the spoils as Piastri completed a late overtake on Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari to recover from seventh place at the start to second.
“I think mostly happy,” Piastri reflected. “I think the first stint didn’t make quite as much progress as I would have liked.
“Obviously, I had a bit of an incident in Turn 1 and then, yeah, just overheated the tyres a little bit. And with the dirty air, it was so hard to get within a second.
“So, yeah, didn’t make much progress there. But then the next two stints, it really started to come alive.
“Went a bit longer on both pit stops and, yeah, just kind of felt like we needed some more laps towards the end, unfortunately.
“But no, after starting 7th, obviously a good turnaround. Yeah, pretty happy.”
Piastri was involved in a three-wide moment at Turn 1 on the first tour with Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez that ended with the Ferrari driver incurring wing damage.
The Australian has disclosed that he also sustained minor damage to his car from the near-miss as he documented another close moment with Perez later in the lap.
“I didn’t get the best of starts but saw a bit of an opening on the outside and then, yeah, went nice and late on the brakes,” he recalled.
“I couldn’t really see where Checo went on the inside but I didn’t think he was really that far up alongside Charles. But obviously, all three of us kind of met at the apex.
“So, yeah, quite fortunate for myself. I think there was a little bit of damage but I don’t think anything major.
“Had a bit more contact with Checo again a bit later in the lap. So, yeah, it was an eventful race.”
Piastri maximised his newer rubber in the closing exchanges to line up Sainz into Turn 4 and then swooped around the Spaniard’s outside at Turn 6 to secure second.
“Yeah, Turn 6 was a happy hunting round this weekend,” he remarked. “I think I did three moves there around the outside.
“Yeah, very, very close on the way into Turn 4 and then, yeah, just had a bit more grip around the outside of 6 and managed to get it done. So pretty happy with that.”
However, Piastri conceded that the result was somewhat bittersweet as he rued the marginal track limits infringement preventing him from recording his maiden win.
Asked whether he still harboured some frustration from the track limits incident, Piastri replied: Yeah, definitely.
“I was pretty upset yesterday that, you know, there’s so many corners. We’ve made changes on the track here to get rid of the track limits issue.
“But this one corner, for some reason, we moved the white line but not enough.
“But at the end of the day, I went slightly outside and, you know, that’s the mistake on me or, you know, that’s what it was.
“But after seeing the evidence on what I got my lap deleted for coming from a chopper cam that was only on me in pretty questionable resolution, yeah, that stung quite a lot.
“So, I had a bit of fire in me going into the race. So, I think some of my overtakes probably came from a bit further back than maybe they would have otherwise.”
