Piastri finds ‘fun’ solace from ‘aggressive’ Austria call

Oscar Piastri has hailed an “aggressive” strategy call from McLaren that allowed him to have “fun” in the Austria sprint.

Being impeded by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the opening session of the sprint shootout played a major role in denying Piastri a higher grid slot than the 17th from which he started.

As the Red Bull Ring evolved from a wet-to-drying track over the course of the 24-lap race, McLaren hauled Piastri in for a switch from the starting intermediate tyres to a set of softs. He was the second driver to pit after Mercedes gambled with George Russell.

Over the closing stages, Australian Piastri was able to mix it with a number of other drivers, delivering a double-whammy pass on Leclerc and Williams’ Alex Albon that propelled him up to 11th by the chequered flag, albeit outside of the top-eight scorers.

“It’s always fun going through the field instead of backwards,” said Piastri.

“From where we started, we had to try something if we wanted to try and challenge the points. It was a good call.

“George was ambitious to go first but as soon as it looked sensible, and he was keeping it (the car) on the track and the pace was similar, we wanted to be aggressive as well.

“The timing of our pitstop was very good. We got the tyres up to temperature quite well, and when we’re on slicks, when the track conditions are like that, we seem to be very quick.

“It was quite satisfying passing a few people. Getting past Leclerc and Albon in two corners was definitely the highlight.

“Yeah, it was a fun afternoon. It’s a shame it wasn’t for anything apart from some fun, but that’s half the battle sometimes.”

Team-mate Lando Norris endured an up-and-down day, with the Briton qualifying a superb third from the sprint shootout in the upgraded MCL60 that has so far shown promise.

Norris, however, suffered anti-stall running through Turn 3 which cost him seven positions.

Unlike Piastri, with Norris running in the points at a time when other teams were bringing in their drivers to switch to slicks, he stayed on the intermediates.

It seemingly cost him at least a point as Russell passed him on the final lap to nick eighth place thanks to the early decision from his team.

Norris has explained his anti-stall incident was sparked by the front-running battle between Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, which resulted in the duo almost taking one another out in the opening corners.

“I lost the rear as I turned into the corner (Turn 3) just because the tyres are cold and it’s a bit difficult to get the inters to work straight away,” recalled Norris.

“So I’ve lost the rear and slid further up the track almost into them. To avoid that I’ve had to hit the brakes again.

“At such a slow speed, with basically zero grip, I locked the rear tyres quite a bit and gone into the anti-stall.

“It’s more of a very unlucky situation than anything being a problem from what I’m aware of. It’s just how it happens sometimes, unfortunate because it cost me the rest of the race and a chance to score some good points.”