‘You live and learn’: Piastri schooled by Verstappen
Ian Chadband |
Oscar Piastri says he’ll “live and learn” from being schooled by the F1 genius of Max Verstappen on a day when his world title assault hit a speedbump at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Italy.
Championship leader Piastri missed out in his bid for a fourth successive triumph on Sunday, having to settle for third at Imola behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris as Verstappen roared to victory in Red Bull’s 400th race.
In a frustrating race for the championship leader, polesitter Piastri was never in the hunt for his fifth victory in seven races once Verstappen edged past him fearlessly with a brilliant late-braking manoeuvre at the first turn.
Fearlessly moving round the outside of the opening chicane and surging through on the inside of Tamburello, the move set the tone for a race in which tyre strategies, poor pit stops and an ill-timed safety car all worked against Piastri.
It culminated with the Australian, following a late safety car, being overtaken for second place on worn tyres by a neat Norris overtake with five laps to go.
After a dazzling spell of success this season, it all felt like a bit of a reality check for Piastri, who succumbed to the sort of skill that’s made four-time champion Verstappen an all-time great.
Asked if he was taken by surprise by the Dutchman’s daring, Piastri had to admit: “Yeah, I thought I had it pretty under control. It was a good move from Max.
“I just braked too early. I definitely would have done something different. I would have braked about 10 metres later probably.
“I live and learn.”
Calling it “not our best Sunday”, the 24-year-old reckoned there were “definitely a lot of things to look at and review after that” with the showpiece Monaco Grand Prix just a week away.
Norris, who jumped from fourth on the grid to finish runner-up, has now trimmed his lead to 13 points, while Verstappen is 22 adrift.
And Norris could celebrate a boost for his own confidence because, though McLaren had opted not to order Piastri to cede the place in the denouement, he still made a successful overtake anyway on his much fresher tyres.
Piastri, in second, had been the first of the front-runners to pit on lap 11, but he emerged in 12th place after a sluggish 3.6-second stop and then had to battle — quite impressively — through heavy traffic as he sought to re-establish himself.
The late duel over the final nine laps with Norris was the first time the pair have had a wheel-to-wheel dust-up since Piastri has assumed the championship lead and the Australian battled hard – but it wasn’t exactly a fair fight.
Because with Norris having pitted in the safety car period — which happened when Alex Albon had come off the track in a tussle with the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc — his fresher tyres enabled him to steal past neatly at turn two.
“We had a good little battle at the end between Oscar and myself which was tense, but always good fun,” said Norris.
The huge crowd of 242,000, packed with Ferrari fans, had roared after the Albon dust-up had enabled Hamilton to finish fourth in his first race in Italy for his new team, a tremendous effort after he started 12th on the grid.
Albon was fifth and Leclerc sixth, while Mercedes’ George Russell slipped to seventh after starting third.
There was a clear spring in Verstappen’s step as he declared: “Overall quite surprising, but of course very happy with what we showed today.
“I just hope that we can show this kind of performance a bit more often.”
AAP
