Piastri ‘speechless’ as he rues team strategy error in ‘gut-wrenching’ Qatar GP

Oscar Piastri was dismayed after he lost out on victory in the Qatar Grand Prix following an alternative strategy call by McLaren, leaving him to settle for second position behind title rival Max Verstappen.

The Australian was well on his way to a perfect weekend after he converted Sprint pole into a win before taking a second pole position for the 57-lap race. Even with the pressure of his team mate, and championship leader, Lando Norris starting alongside him on the front row and Verstappen behind in P3, he executed a strong launch at lights out.

Just as he was finding a rhythm and pulling away from the Red Bull, who squeezed past Norris at the start, the Safety Car was called to recover Nico Hulkenberg's stranded Kick Sauber – the German driver had made contact with Pierre Gasly on Lap 7 and retired from the race, damaging the Alpine in the process.

With a 25-lap maximum stint limit put on every tyre set this weekend, nearly every team chose to take advantage of the Safety Car conditions and complete one of their two mandatory pit stops. McLaren, however, went against the majority and kept both of their drivers out.

The decision gave Piastri an uphill battle as he had to stop twice in normal racing conditions, allowing Verstappen to extend his newfound lead at the front of the field and beat the McLaren driver to the chequered flag by nearly eight seconds.

Asked to summarise his day, Piastri said: “Pretty gut-wrenching, to be honest. It felt like I drove probably the best weekend I’ve had this year, if not in F1, so to not have the result is painful.

“Clearly we didn’t get it right tonight. I drove the best race that I could as fast as I could and there was nothing left out there, so I tried my best. It wasn’t to be tonight unfortunately.

“I think in hindsight it’s pretty obvious what we would’ve done. I’m sure we’ll discuss it as a team.”

Immediately after the race, he was heard stating over the radio that he was “speechless” and didn’t “have any words”, summarising a wholly frustrating day for the Woking outfit as Norris crossed the line in fourth place.

Going into the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Piastri is now 16 points adrift of his team mate’s lead, but Verstappen has overtaken him in the Standings and finds himself with a 12-point deficit to the Briton.

“It’s not all bad, obviously,” Piastri said. “It’s been a really good weekend. The pace has been very strong but obviously it’s a little bit tough to swallow at the moment.

“I’ll just try and drive how I did this weekend, that’s all I can do. I obviously need a lot of things to go in my direction so I’ll just try and be as fast as I can and put myself in the best position possible and see what happens.”