Piastri ‘caught sleeping’ by Verstappen stunner, ‘weak’ McLaren slammed
Oscar Piastri was “caught sleeping” by Max Verstappen in a stunning move on the Aussie, as a world champ labelled McLaren “weak”.
Oscar Piastri’s lead in the Formula One championship has been shaved to 13 points after Max Verstappen produced one of the best overtakes of his career to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Piastri started on pole position and got a decent start off the line, only to fall victim to a spectacular piece of late braking by Verstappen, who snatched the lead with a sweeping lunge on the first lap.
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From then on it was always going to be difficult for Piastri to take the win. He quickly pitted to change from medium to hard tyres and worked his way through the field in heavy traffic — the early pit stop was arguably the wrong strategy call.
But two Safety Car periods played perfectly into Verstappen’s hands, allowing the world champion to get two free pit stops and maintain first position.
A Safety Car late in the race set the stage for a frenetic finish, with a very slow Lando Norris pit stop allowing Piastri to move into second place for the closing stages of the race.
You can watch Max’s overtake on Piastri in the video above
But Piastri opted not to pit again and his hard tyres were 20 laps older than Norris’ tyres, and the Brit overtook his teammate as the McLarens raced wheel-to-wheel for the first time this season.
Verstappen described his move on Piastri as “sending it around the outside”, adding it “unleashed our pace” once the Red Bull was in clear air in the lead.
Sky Sports expert commentator Anthony Davidson wondered whether Piastri could have been more aggressive at the start to shut the door on Verstappen.
“I think he’ll be kicking himself a bit for Turn 1 and Turn 2 through into Tamburello,” Davidson said.
“When he looks back at that, I’m sure he’ll be thinking he could have braked later, could have got my elbows out a little bit more.
“You have to be on your absolute A-game when you’ve got Verstappen bearing down on you in the first couple of corners. You know he’s going to go for it.”
Former F1 world Jacques Villeneuve said: “It was a copy of Jeddah except he (Piastri) didn’t close the door, he left enough space because he was caught sleeping.”
In somewhat awkward scenes post-race, Piastri was made to re-watch Verstappen’s overtake on him on a TV in the cooldown room.
Piastri had been aiming to join Ayrton Senna as the only McLaren drivers to win four races in a row, but it wasn’t to be for the 24-year-old.
He still leads the championship on 146 points, 13 clear of Norris and 22 ahead of Verstappen.
“I just braked too early,” Piastri said.
“It was a good move by Max. Disappointing obviously but I think we made a few wrong calls after that anyway. Not our best Sunday.
“Well done to Max and Red Bull. It was a good move but also they had pace today.
“I tried my best to hang onto second but just had nowhere near enough grip. So third it is.
Asked about racing Norris, Piastri said: “It was probably inevitably that he was going to get past, but I wasn’t going to give up without a fight.”
Norris said: “Max drove a good race today. We had a good little battle at the end between Oscar and myself, which is always tense, but always good fun.
“For us as a team, second and third is great. Of course you’d love to be up there fighting against Max, but they were too good for us today.”
It’s Verstappen’s 65th career win and he equals Michael Schumacher with the most podiums with the same team (116).
World champion slams ‘weak’ McLaren
Villenueve criticised McLaren for not ordering Piastri to let Norris past after the virtual safety car car so the Brit could attempt to catch Verstappen in the final 10 laps.
“They (McLaren) show weakness basically,” the 1997 world champion said on Sky Sports.
“They don’t show the strength Red Bull are showing year after year. It’s as if they’re afraid to be aggressive to try and win the drivers’ championship and they’re afraid to go against Piastri, it’s really odd.
“Piastri messed up that first corner. He got caught out sleeping. He should never have come out of that corner second.
“On the restart, McLaren knew it was a matter of laps before Norris would overtake Piastri with the tyre difference. So why make him lose three laps instead of giving him a shot at Verstappen?
“Verstappen is in the championship (battle), you don’t want to give him wins. That’s more points for him.
“They (McLaren) seem to be happy with second and third. McLaren has a car where a good weekend is first and second. Anything less is barely acceptable, but they seem to be happy with second and third.”
Villenueve said McLaren’s strategy decisions shows “a lack of ‘let’s go for it’”.
F1’s European triple header continues next weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix results (top 10)
1) Max Verstappen
2) Lando Norris
3) Oscar Piastri
4) Lewis Hamilton
5) Alex Albon
6) Charles Leclerc
7) George Russell
8) Carlos Sainz
9) Isack Hadjar
10) Yuki Tsunoda
Originally published as Piastri ‘caught sleeping’ by Verstappen stunner, ‘weak’ McLaren slammed
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