'If Lando Has Taken...': Oscar Piastri Reacts After Collision With Norris

Piastri continued and finished fourth while Norris retired.

Mercedes’ George Russell won the race from pole position, ahead of four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, with teenage rookie Kimi Antonelli finishing third in the second Mercedes, becoming the third youngest driver to achieve an F1 podium position.

This victory marked Russell’s first win of the season, making him only the fourth different winner this year, alongside the two McLaren drivers and Verstappen.

Piastri’s fourth-place finish left him frustrated and disappointed as McLaren missed a podium finish for the first time this year in the 10th race of the 24-race season. However, he increased his lead in the drivers’ title race to 22 points, with 198 ahead of Norris and Verstappen, who is third with

Russell is fourth with 136 points.

Piastri commented, “It’s not ideal for anyone. I’ve not actually seen the incident, so I don’t know exactly what happened, but if Lando has taken full responsibility then that’s how it goes, I guess. It was just a bit of a tricky race overall and not an ideal finish."

Reflecting on his duel with Norris, he added, “It was fair, but he made quite a large move into Turn 10, and I held my own into the chicane. It was definitely a tough battle, but a clean one up until that point. I’ve not seen the incident, but I don’t think there were any bad intentions involved. I think it was just unfortunate really.

“I will go and have a look — we’re both fighting for a world championship, and I’m very thankful to the team that they allow us to race. I don’t expect this to change anything in terms of that."

Piastri also expressed disappointment with the race overall.

“I think our pace was OK, but not the race I expected with the bad start, which kind of cemented us in fourth, and I don’t think we had enough of an advantage to do anything else."

He was also reluctant to overplay his advantage in the drivers’ title race.

“For me, this weekend wasn’t good enough, and it’s still far too early to think that this is a comfortable advantage or anything like that. There’s a long way to go in the season, and we’ve got to try and improve overall."

Norris did not finish and accepted the blame for the accident.

“There’s no one to blame but myself, so I apologise to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something a bit too silly. Glad I didn’t ruin his race and yeah, apologies to the team."

He acknowledged it was “more than silly… but that’s racing and just silly on my part. So I’ll go to bed tonight, apologise to everyone and I will crack on."

With AFP Inputs