Piastri finishes in front of Norris despite a first-lap collision
Monday, 20 March 2023
The Aussie made small contact with Gasly.
Australia's Oscar Piastri was left to rue a "very, very small" brush with Alpine's Pierre Gasly that undid a top-10 qualifying effort just seconds into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the 21-year-old eventually finishing 15th on a difficult night for McLaren in Jeddah.
Piastri was superb on Saturday, qualifying ninth after making Q3, a huge improvement from being eliminated in Q1 in Bahrain a fortnight previously. He started eighth after a grid penalty for Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, but a brush with Gasly at the second corner of the race broke part of the right side of his front wing endplate, necessitating a pit stop that dropped him to last place.
Shame to have to box so early. Was tough from then on but had some fun battles at the end. On to Melbourne we go 🧡#OP81 #F1 #SaudiArabianGP 🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/xqoanCGABx
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) March 19, 2023
Piastri battled on gamely from there with few strategic cards to play, McLaren's decision to use its allocation of new soft-compound Pirelli tyres for Piastri in qualifying leaving it snookered when the retirement of Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) on lap 18 saw a safety car called, most of the field pitting for new tyres.
Piastri spent 26 of the 50 laps in 17th place, but fought with teammate Lando Norris – the Briton recovering from his own front nose change – in the final laps before being allowed through by the team to pursue fellow rookie Logan Sargeant (Williams), who he eventually passed on the final lap to snare 15th place.
After he retired just 13 laps into his F1 debut in Bahrain, Piastri was relieved to see the chequered flag and knock off some of the rust after not racing in 2022 following his 2021 Formula 2® title win, but was frustrated that such an innocuous touch saw his push for points unravel.
"Obviously not the ideal first lap. It felt like a very, very small touch – unfortunately got a bit of damage and it was always going to be tough from then on," he said.
"Yesterday we went for a lot of softs (tyres) which helped us in qualifying, but in that situation in the race we didn't have anything to pit onto in the safety car. To do 49 laps on that one set of (hard) tyres was good, but obviously that's not the night we were looking for.
"There's a few positives there, managing to go the whole way (to the end of the race), but obviously we don't want to be fighting for those positions."
While his race was one of wondering what might have been – seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who lined up next to Piastri on the grid, finished fifth – Piastri at least took some positives from the closing stages when faced with a chance to fight.
"After the first lap it was always going to be tough, so the last couple of laps were a bit of entertainment, which was nice," he said.
"I'm glad we finished the race, first and foremost, because on lap one I didn't think that was going to happen again. Nice to get some experience, a bit of race craft back at the end, and learning to use the battery to overtake people, stuff like that. That's what I'm out there for, to learn at the moment."
Piastri's next Grand Prix is the one he's had circled on his calendar ever since his ascension to F1® was confirmed last year – his home race at the Rolex Formula 1® Australian Grand Prix from March 30-April 2.
Oscar's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix by the numbers
Qualified: 9th (started 8th after Leclerc/Ferrari 10-place grid penalty)
Finished: 15th
Pit stops/tyres: Lap 1 (medium/hard)
Fastest lap: 1min 34.287secs (16th), lap 48
Points this event: 0
Points this season: 0 (19th in world championship)
