Oscar Piastri received a black-and-white flag from the FIA during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix for exceeding track limits. The McLaren driver admitted he had overstepped.
The incident began with first-lap contact with George Russell. The Mercedes driver kept squeezing him toward the wall, forcing Piastri to brake to avoid a collision. However, the two cars ended up bunched together, damaging Piastri’s front wing. The damage affected his race, and he finished eighth—his worst result since 11th in Canada.
“It was just a tough afternoon from literally the start,” Piastri told the media, including Motorsport Week. “From then on, the rest of the race was very compromised, obviously with some of the damage and the track position mainly.”
Piastri explained that Russell kept squeezing him to the wall. “I was alongside, and he just kept squeezing me to the wall, and then I hit the brakes and kind of avoided him. But amongst all that, he hit the brakes as well. Everyone hit the brakes, and we kind of got stuck together,” he added.
He expected more space, but between a car and a wall, there was none. “On a track like this, you’re always searching for a bit of clean air in the high-speed corners, and with no kerb or wall on the inside of some of the corners, it’s very easy to just go a little bit too far,” he said.
Despite the finish, Piastri felt he had decent pace in clean air. But after the pit stops, he got stuck behind a train of cars, including Franco Colapinto’s Alpine. “I think the pace and clean air on the hard was pretty good, but we were trying to make up the pit loss of the VSC to the guys who pitted, and once they got the loss back, I was stuck again, so that was painful,” he said.
Furthermore, Piastri complained about the medium tyre, which was good for one lap then fell away badly. “Then when we pitted onto the medium, we pitted into a four-car train, and that wasn’t great, and the medium tyre was just awful. It was good for [one lap], and then it was pretty terrible, so a lot of things to try and fix,” he concluded.
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