Alice Powell shares why Oscar Piastri was not as fast as Lando Norris at the Dutch Grand Prix

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It was not the easiest race for Oscar Piastri after he lost out to George Russell at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri got a bad start off the line along with Lando Norris, who failed to lead a race for the sixth time having started from pole when Max Verstappen overtook him into the banked Tarzan corner.

Russell managed to demote Piastri to fourth and the McLaren driver spent most of his first stint sitting behind the Mercedes, while the team decided to extend his sole pit stop by another five laps after Norris.

When Piastri emerged out of the pits, he had a better tyre deficit than his rivals and potentially faced a one-two finish. But team principal Andrea Stella believes that the poor start cost Piastri a shot at bringing home a one-two victory, as he was unable to make use of the fresher tyres to overtake Charles Leclerc.

Discussing Piastri’s form on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast, racing driver Alice Powell has a theory on why Piastri was unable to match the speed of Norris throughout the race after he won it by over 20 seconds from Verstappen.

Oscar Piastri still ‘dialling’ into the tyres says Alice Powell

It is only Piastri’s second full-time season in F1 but pressure is building on him to deliver results, now that McLaren has produced a car that is capable of winning races by margins usually seen by Red Bull.

Powell believes the Australian is still having to understand the limitations of the complicated Pirelli tyres compared to Norris.

“Oscar has only had one full season under his belt, so maybe he’s still dialling into the tyres and he did have the pace, but he just got stuck behind Charles Leclerc,” said Powell.

“Leclerc did a great job, just getting his exits, nailing it, and pulled out a result. One for Oscar that got away from him.”

Oscar Piastri left disappointed by factor that ‘ruined’ Dutch GP

Piastri was on the same tyre strategy as Norris but by keeping him out longer and forcing him to emerge in the traffic, McLaren had made it harder for him to progress.

The Zandvoort circuit is known for being tough to overtake on and despite McLaren’s clear speed advantage, Piastri could not threaten Verstappen or overtake Leclerc for the final podium spot.

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Piastri pinpointed it to the lack of clean air they were in during the race, having spent most of it behind another car on track.

The Australian still managed to pick up 12 points which, along with Norris’ win and bonus point for the fastest lap, enabled McLaren to close the gap to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship to 30 points.