Oscar Piastri has strongly criticized Carlos Sainz after the Hungarian GP. The McLaren driver called the collision with the Williams driver, which possibly cost him the victory, ‘one of the dumbest things’ he has ever seen on a track. Piastri seemed to be heading for a strong result for a long time, but lost valuable time due to the incident. To make matters worse, he then retired with a gearbox problem.
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After a lightning start, Piastri led the race in the opening phase, but saw his lead disappear after he made a pit stop and fell behind Sainz. In an attempt to overtake the Williams driver – notably a backmarker – the two collided, causing Piastri to lose time compared to teammate Lando Norris. Norris then capitalized by making his second pit stop and taking the lead.
Afterwards, Piastri was clearly unhappy with Sainz’s performance. “For me, there is absolutely no excuse,” Piastri told Viaplay. “That must be one of the dumbest things I have ever seen on a track. I don’t care what excuse you give.” Nevertheless, Sainz refused to take the blame. He told the press that a system error had been the culprit. As a result, he had ‘no idea’ that the McLaren driver was approaching him.
Missed opportunity
According to Piastri, he felt that victory was within reach. “It is absolutely a missed opportunity,” he continued, disappointed. “The pace wasn’t great on the hard tires, but I felt that as long as I maintained my track position, I had a reasonable chance of holding on until the end. It wouldn’t be a pretty race, but I felt it was possible. But yes, from that moment on, pretty much everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.”
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According to Piastri, the strongest moment of his afternoon came at the start, when he took the lead. “That was absolutely the highlight of my race and then it went downhill,” he joked to Sky Sports. “At least there’s plenty to discuss afterwards.”
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