Oscar Piastri had high hopes for a podium finish in Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix, but a sluggish start from third on the grid saw him slip behind George Russell’s Mercedes at the opening corner, setting the tone for a challenging afternoon.
In hindsight, the McLaren driver reckoned that his relative underperformance in qualifying had likely squandered his chances of following his race winning teammate Lando Norris into the top three at Zandvoort.
Piastri admitted that losing third into the first corner to Russell was but “one part of the puzzle”.
“Realistically, it started with qualifying, just not being competitive enough when it mattered,” he added, quoted by Speedcafe.
“The start obviously didn't help things, it just kind of boxed us in a little bit.”
From there, Piastri found himself locked in a battle, spending most of the race chasing the car ahead.
“I think the pace in clean air was quite strong and clearly the car was quick today. Just I spent about 60 of the 70 laps within a second of the car in front, so that made life pretty painful.”
Like the majority of the field, Piastri opted for a medium-to-hard one stop strategy. But after pitting eight laps after Russell and nine laps later than Charles Leclerc, Piastri emerged behind both drivers.
Although he quickly caught and passed Russell for fourth, Leclerc’s surprisingly quick Ferrari proved to be a tougher challenge
©McLaren
“Even in the first stint, it wasn't straightforward to keep Leclerc behind,” Piastri said of the Ferrari's surprising pace.
“Then in the second stint, it was a bit stronger than I expected. A little bit surprising. Days like this happen with these cars, it seems.
“Even for ourselves, there's been a few races like that, and some races where it can be the opposite as well, where you have a really strong Saturday and then Sunday it's just not quite the same.”
Despite his relentless efforts, Piastri couldn’t find a way past Leclerc and had to settle for fourth at the chequered flag.
“There was definitely moments of the weekend where I felt very strong and very comfortable,” the 23-year-old said, reflecting on his afternoon.
“Friday was pretty strong, especially over one lap. Even qualifying was looking very strong, just I didn't find enough on the last lap of qualifying and then that made life a bit more painful.”
While Norris made the most of the upgrade package introduced by McLaren at Zandvoort to take a commanding win, Piastri couldn't match his teammate’s performance throughout the race, although he was not far off.
“Accompanied by a bad start today, it really kind of set the tone for the afternoon,” he concluded.
“When your team-mate wins by 20 seconds, clearly there's things to work on and improve, so I'll try and make sure that I'm back in the game next weekend.”
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