Piastri wins Dutch GP as Norris hopes go up in smoke
Ian Chadband |
Oscar Piastri has made a giant step towards becoming Australia’s first world F1 champ for 45 years by winning the Dutch Grand Prix as the hopes of his devastated McLaren teammate Lando Norris went up in smoke at Zandvoort.
The title race took a huge and potentially decisive twist in the Australian’s favour on Sunday (Monday AEST) when Norris, running in second with a fifth straight McLaren 1-2 looking a certainty, was forced out when his car broke down with only seven laps left.
Norris had been chasing Piastri, determined to narrow the Aussie’s lead in the championship race from nine to just two points. Instead, with smoke pouring from the back of his McLaren, he had to stop, surely contemplating how his second DNF of the season could prove fatal to his chances.
Piastri, who had led from start to finish, then went on to win after a third safety car restart, and now leads his luckless teammate by an imposing 34 points with nine races remaining.
Not that the ever level-headed Piastri was about to get too excited, despite now surely feeling, with his biggest lead of the season, that he’s on course to become the first Aussie champion since Alan Jones in 1980.
“Starting out on top is a good way to go,” he said, celebrating victory in the first race after the mid-season break.
“If we can keep it running, then that would be great — but there’s a long way to go yet and we’ll try and keep it one race at a time.
“It feels good obviously, I controlled the race when I needed to, but obviously it was incredibly unfortunate for Lando at the end.”
The Englishman was left wondering if it might be the end of his championship dreams.
“We will wait and see. It is frustrating. It hurts to lose 25 points outright. It would have been smaller, but I just have to keep fighting, keep doing what I can. That is life, I just take it on the chin and move on,” sighed Norris.
But he may wonder how he’s going to pull back the lead following another flawless display from the ice-cool Melburnian Piastri as he collected his seventh victory of the year and his ninth in all, equalling the career total of his manager Mark Webber.
He looked in command even when having to cope with a spell of light rain and the threat of more drizzle amid the frantic restarts.
Twice, Norris had been hot on his tail after the safety cars and, with four laps to go, world champ Max Verstappen tried his hand, having one last crack at challenging him following the restart after Norris’s misfortune.
Yet Piastri still prevailed confidently, pushing away to win by 1.271 seconds from home hero Verstappen, with Racing Bulls’ rookie Izack Hadjar a brilliant third as he became the youngest Frenchman, at 20, ever to stand on the F1 podium.
It proved a calamitous day for Ferrari, with both their drivers crashing out at the same spot.
Lewis Hamilton hit the wall during a rain shower, while teammate Charles Leclerc’s race ended when he was hit, unluckily, by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who was given a penalty for causing the accident, and spun into the same barrier.
For McLaren, it was another triumphant day despite Norris’s woe, but team principal Andrea Stella was sure the Englishman’s challenge wasn’t finished yet.
“Joy and pain at the same time but this is racing. We don’t know what happened yet with Lando’s car, it would be unfair to speculate if it’s a chassis problem or an engine problem.
“But 100 percent, Lando can still contend, absolutely no doubt.”
AAP
