Oscar Piastri did not mince his words after his collision with Carlos Sainz in Hungary, believing that this incident cost him a victory that was within his grasp.
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Oscar Piastri unleashed his anger after the Hungarian Grand Prix. Long a leader in the race, the McLaren driver believes that his collision with Carlos Sainz completely compromised his chances of victory.
The incident occurred as the Australian was catching up to the Williams of the Spanish driver to lap him. The two single-seaters made contact, causing Piastri to lose valuable time.
Moments later, Lando Norris took advantage of the situation to make his pit stop and virtually take the lead of the race.
After the finish, Piastri did not try to hide his anger.
“For me, there is absolutely no excuse. It’s probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen on a track.”
“I don’t care about explanations”
Very upset, the McLaren driver believes that nothing can justify Carlos Sainz’s maneuver.
Even several hours after the race, his opinion had not changed.
“Frankly, I don’t care at all what excuse can be given.”
This collision marked the beginning of a nightmarish end to the race for the Australian.
A few laps later, a gearbox failure forced him to retire, definitively ending his hopes of victory.
A golden opportunity gone
Piastri readily admits that this Grand Prix represents a huge missed opportunity.
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Despite difficulties with the hard tires, he was convinced he could maintain the lead until the finish thanks to his track position.
“Yes, it’s clearly a lost victory. The pace wasn’t extraordinary on the hard tires, but as long as I stayed ahead, I thought I had a good chance of holding on until the end.”
The Australian knew that the end of the race would be difficult, but he remained convinced that success was still within his reach.
“It probably wouldn’t have been pretty to watch, but I thought it was possible.”
A day where everything went wrong
After the contact with Sainz, then the gearbox failure, Piastri saw all the unfavorable scenarios unfold one after another.
The McLaren driver still struggles to believe this succession of misfortunes.
“From that moment on, absolutely everything that could go wrong went wrong… even things you never think about.”
While his teammate Lando Norris gave McLaren its first victory of the season, Piastri leaves Budapest without the slightest point and with the feeling of having let a success that seemed within his grasp slip away.
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