Piastri “walking away reasonably happy” with P3 in Singapore

Oscar Piastri said his third-place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix was “the most we could have hoped for” after damage limitation became his focus following a disappointing qualifying session.

One of the most physically taxing challenges on the calendar, Piastri drove a consistent and well-thought-out race to maximise his points-scoring potential in Singapore.

Making up for his errors during qualifying, the 23-year-old ended Sunday’s 62-lap scorcher in third place, making it a double podium finish on a dominant day for the championship leaders.

“It was a tough race, definitely,” Piastri said.

“Not on the same level as what we had in Qatar last year, I would say, but to be honest, it almost gets harder when it gets lonely. 

“Once I got past the Mercedes, Max was, I think, 20 seconds ahead, and I knew I was a lot quicker than the Mercedes, so the last 15 laps felt longer than the first 45. 

“So yeah, it was a tough race, definitely. 

“It always is here, but in some ways having the air blowing in your face and stuff like that is almost quite nice. 

“You know, the in-lap was actually probably… You know, when you stop concentrating so much and you don’t have as much air in your face, it actually can feel worse. 

“So definitely a tough evening, but that’s what we’re paid for.”

Launching off the line, Piastri lost out to the fast-starting Haas of Nico Hulkenberg into the first braking zone, however, it wasn’t long before the Australian was back on the attack, reclaiming P5 with an overtake into Turn 7.

Piastri then settled down, hovering at a two-second deficit to George Russell for nearly 17 laps before achieving a short-lived burst of assistance within the #63’s DRS range.

Alternating between Plan B and Plan C, he dropped back for the next ten laps to lend his tyres some much-needed relief.

When Russell made his pitstop, however, Piastri took it as a sign to up the pace, matching his race-leading teammate with the aid of 12 seconds of clear air ahead.

But while he found a way to match Lando Norris’ pace, it was too little too late for his fading hopes of winning back-to-back Grands Prix when the #4 managed to pit and rejoin the race still in the lead.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri congratulate each other in Parc Ferme after the Singapore GP. Image: Zak Mauger / LAT Images.

Accepting defeat on that front, Piastri’s main focus switched to Lewis Hamilton who was running 30 seconds behind on a different strategy.

The Australian remained on his original medium tyres for a total of 38 laps, missing the window to over-cut the Mercedes duo after rejoining 1.5 seconds behind Hamilton.

The drastic tyre offset what Hamilton had been so concerned about earlier in the race was instantly playing in Piastri’s favour, allowing him to dispose of the duo on track.

He breezed by a very frustrated Hamilton on Lap 40, picking off George Russell on Lap 44 to settle into the final podium position. 

“It was difficult for the last few laps of the stint, but until then I could tell that we had a good pace advantage over Mercedes, and Lewis starting on the soft meant that I was never really going to try and push to get him early on,” Piastri said.

“I knew that the race was going to come to me much later on, and that’s basically what we did. 

“So, yeah, when I was in the dirty air behind them, it was tough, as it always is, but I knew that we had a good pace advantage and that the longer we kept going the more opportunities we opened up for ourselves the bigger tyre difference we had. 

“If there was a Safety Car then we could have capitalised on it, so I think we executed it very well. 

“The last few laps, it was trying to yeah get the team to pit me but it was all, you know, pretty much under control.”

Piastri wasn’t able to carve the large interval between himself and Max Verstappen down in the final 15 laps of the race, instead held up by the back-markers of Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas before crossing the line 20.8 seconds behind the Dutchman.

“Yesterday obviously wasn’t ideal, but today the aim was to get onto the podium, and I think losing so much time behind the Mercedes in the first thing meant that that was definitely the most we could have done, so walking away reasonably happy, ”Piastri said.

“Of course, I’d prefer to be sat in the middle, but I think it was a good damage limitation day today. 

“Even through the weekend, I was struggling quite a lot in practice and felt like I made a good step into qualifying. 

“Didn’t execute as well as I needed to, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot through the weekend as well. 

“So even if the end result wasn’t exactly what I hoped, I think we’ve done a good job of maximising the points, especially for the team. 

“It’s a massive points haul for us, and I feel like I’ve learned some good lessons for next year as well.”

With Norris dominantly securing the top step, Piastri standing to his left, and Sergio Perez barely scraping a point after 62 laps of uninterrupted racing, McLaren advances further ahead in the Constructors’ championship to sit on 516 points, 41 points clear of a weak Red Bull outfit.

“I mean clearly in the Constructors’ the trajectory has been in the right direction for a long time now,” the #81 said.

“We’ve got clearly a quick car underneath us, we’ve got both of us scoring big points consistently. 

“So yeah, I feel like we’re doing a good job as a whole team but you can never take it for granted how quickly things can turn around, so we’ll see.”

After securing back-to-back victories during the street circuit double-header, McLaren will enjoy a hard-earned respite ahead of the United States Grand Prix, set to take place from October 18-20.

Image: Andy Hone / LAT Images

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