Yesterday at 06:30
Oscar Piastri has explained that he and his McLaren team will
analyse their strategy decisions in the Hungarian Grand Prix, which
could have ended with a "different story." Piastri was placed onto
the more conventional two-stopper in Budapest, whilst team-mate
Lando Norris was given a one-stop following his poor opening lap in
which he dropped to fifth. It set up a thrilling late race charge
where Piastri had 19 laps to hunt down Norris, who was 8.9s ahead
after the Australian cleared Charles Leclerc's ailing Ferrari.
Piastri fell 0.6s short of overhauling Norris, with the result
having a 14-point swing in the drivers' championship fight, with
Piastri now nine points ahead instead of the 23 it could have been
had he won with Norris second. Reflecting, Piastri felt his
two-stopper could have worked to secure the win, but only if he had
clean air throughout the race - something Norris had on his
one-stopper. "Going into the race, we thought a two-stop was the
best thing to do," Piastri explained to Sky Sports F1. "In clean
air, potentially, it still was, but having a two-stop race in clean
air vs dirty air is a different story. "It is very easy now to say
that a one-stop was the way to go, but with a one-second
difference, the answer would be very different. "So there are some
things to analyse with the team."
