Long a leader in the Hungarian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri saw his hopes of victory vanish after a collision, then a gearbox failure.
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Oscar Piastri seemed on track for another victory in Hungary. Thanks to an excellent start, the McLaren driver had capitalized on an error by Lando Norris in the first corners to take the lead of the race.
The Australian then led for a good part of the race, before his afternoon gradually turned into a nightmare.
“It was undoubtedly the best moment of my race. Then, everything got complicated.”
A collision that changes everything
The turning point came after his second pit stop.
Back on track in traffic, Piastri was hit by Carlos Sainz while trying to lap the Spanish driver. The incident caused him to lose valuable time and allowed Norris to pit moments later to emerge at the front of the race.
The Australian admits that this episode heavily influenced the final result.
“I was hit by Carlos and, at the time, I was hoping they wouldn’t bring Lando into the pits because of that incident, to at least give me a chance to stay in the lead. But I don’t think that was really realistic.”
Piastri nevertheless remains convinced that McLaren had made the right strategic decision.
“I was mostly upset about what had just happened. The timing of our stop was right, we wanted to get ahead of Lewis and that was the right thing to do.”
A mechanical failure to conclude a nightmare
As if that wasn’t enough, the situation worsened on the 56th lap when his gearbox gave up.
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Forced to retire while still in the leading positions, Piastri saw all hope of scoring points vanish.
Before this mechanical failure, he had already encountered significant difficulties with his hard tires.
“There are a lot of things to analyze. First, our pace on hard tires was catastrophic. Then, getting hit by a backmarker is obviously never what you want. I also made mistakes.”
“A black Sunday”
Despite his teammate’s victory, Piastri struggles to find any positive aspect of his weekend.
“And then there was that gearbox failure… In the end, it makes for a very difficult day. A black Sunday.”
When McLaren’s victory is mentioned to him, the Australian acknowledges that it is a satisfaction for his team, without hiding his personal frustration.
“That’s perhaps the only positive point of the day. Congratulations to the whole team for the car’s developments and for the pace shown today. But I am obviously very disappointed, as I was hoping for a completely different result.”
After long appearing capable of winning, Piastri ultimately leaves Budapest without a single point, while Lando Norris gives McLaren its first victory of the season.
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