Piastri on P8 finish in Mexico: “A massive shame”

Climbing from the back of the grid to eighth place, Oscar Piastri described his final result as “a massive shame” after he spent the entire Mexico City Grand Prix battling through the midfield.

Condemned to start the 71-lap thriller from the second last row of the grid, Piastri’s point-scoring odds were always low, with his “tough” medium tyre opening stint not lending him any favours.

Launching on the long run down to the first braking zone, the McLaren driver’s pathway through Turn 1 became a difficult one after Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon made contact, ending both drivers’ races.

For Piastri, evasive action to avoid debris and a rouge tyre left the Australian in last place, with Zhou Guanyu getting a clear line on the inside of the first corner.

As the field completed the first sector, a Safety Car had been declared, holding Piastri at the back of the pack through to the restart.

When the remaining 18 drivers got going again, passing the two Sauber drivers proved to be a bit of a challenge for the Australia who instead watched the bright green cars pick off Esteban Ocon before following suit.

While his teammate was further down the road making headlines during a controversial championship battle, Piastri worked on demoting Zhou, a move he completed without complaint on Lap 10.

Valtteri Bottas soon sat less than a second in front of the #81, with Piastri reverting the order within a matter of laps.

“I think looking at last year’s race for Lando (Norris), and even last week for George (Russell), it’s very, very tough no matter which car you’re in to get through a pack,” Piastri said.

“You kind of need to wait for everything to spread out a bit — once it did spread out, then I was able to come through reasonably quickly. 

“It’s just, you’re kind of at the mercy of what the cars ahead of you do.

“Hopefully the tyres we tested in FP2 make that a bit easier next year, but hopefully I don’t have to start that far back again and do a better job of quality. 

“So, obviously some things to improve, but I think outside of the controls, behind the scenes I felt like it was a much more positive weekend than Austin.”

His first of two tense battles with the Williams of Franco Colapinto arrived on Lap 18 of the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Piastri hunting down the crowd favourite after clawing his way into DRS range.

Down the main straight, the Australian came closer than ever to completing the move, however, an unrelenting Colapinto put his foot down, running side by side with Piastri as the duo made slight contact.

Oscar Piastri passes Franco Colapinto during the Mexican GP. Image: by Steven Tee / LAT Images.

Piastri eventually passed the rookie, setting his sights on Lance Stroll, the driver who he claimed P11 from on a move out of Turn 4.

“Honestly, in the first stint [Franco Colapinto] was not too slow,” Piastri said.

“I think after I pitted he had quite a big moment and defended very hard, which I think cost both of us a lot of time, but he can do what he wants. 

“He doesn’t have to make life easy.  

“It was just a bit tougher than I expected to get through, but once we had some clean air the pace was good. 

“So, I think the key in that is make sure you’ve got clean air by qualifying.”

Guided by the sole remaining RB driver, Piastri inherited his way into the top ten as the first round of pitstops commenced.

It wasn’t a comfortable ride into the points-scoring positions, however, with the #81 begging the pit wall to “pull me out of this s**t” as he passed Liam Lawson to join a less-than-ideal DRS train.

His prayers were answered only after he was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton who was charging through the field on fresher tyres, with McLaren calling Piastri in for a quick two-second stop on Lap 39.

He rejoined the race and was thrust into a three-way battle for tenth between himself, Bottas and Pierre Gasly.

He passed the Sauber much easier this time around, demoting the Fin with an overtake through Turn 4.

As for Gasly, the Alpine’s demotion came later on Lap 44 with the Frenchman not putting up much of a fight into the first turn, unlike Colapinto who valiantly defended against the McLaren driver before pitting.

Running in P9, the surprisingly quick Haas cars posed an unprecedented challenge for the Australian who spent the remainder of the race attempting to move above both Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, however, he was only successful in the case of the German.

Having closed down the gap to Hulkenberg, Piastri utilised his DRS advantage down the main straight to breeze by into Turn 1, yet with 15 laps on the board and eight seconds between himself and the #20, he could not manage anything better than P8.

“Looking outside the results, honestly, I felt like it was coming together to be a good weekend, so the result is obviously a massive shame,” he said.

“But I think there’s still some positives compared to last weekend, which was a pretty lonely P5.

“I felt like today I had at least a bit more control over my destiny. 

“So, let’s see what happens next week.”

A trip to São Paulo, Brazil rounds out the final race of the American triple header, with the field taking on another Sprint weekend at the iconic Autodromo José Carlos Pace poses in just a few days’ time.

Image: Dom Romney / LAT Images

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