Anthony Davidson points out what ‘really hurt’ McLaren during the Dutch Grand Prix

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McLaren had a dominant run to victory with Lando Norris during the Dutch Grand Prix, but the team went away feeling there was more to come.

Lando Norris finished by a comfortable margin of 22.8 seconds from Max Verstappen, but teammate Oscar Piastri could only manage fourth.

The Australian dropped behind George Russell at the beginning of the race, then McLaren decided to extend his pit stop window by five laps which kept him behind the Mercedes driver.

Fortunately, Russell decided to run a two-stop race which released Piastri into some clean air, but the Australian would eventually battle with Charles Leclerc for the final podium spot.

At this stage, Norris raced off into the distance while Martin Brundle felt Verstappen was dropping back on purpose to make his thoughts clear to Red Bull, after complaining most of the race about the balance of his RB20.

This opened up the possibility of a one-two as Piastri had the pace to overtake, but found himself stuck behind the Ferrari driver in the closing stages.

Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson believes one aspect of his race ‘really hurt’ his chances of securing a one-two finish when speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

Anthony Davidson points out Oscar Piastri start ‘really hurt’ McLaren one-two chances

The starts from both Norris and Piastri cost them considerable ground off the start line, with Verstappen able to take the lead from the Briton into the first corner.

Piastri meanwhile slipped behind Russell, which compromised his strategy from there on in as he was unable to make an overtake work in the opening stint.

Team principal Andrea Stella expressed anger at this aspect of the Dutch GP, beliving it cost them a potential one-two finish and maximum points. Davidson also thinks Piastri had the pace to challenge the Red Bull driver.

“Oscar should have probably finished 2nd in that race. The speed he had, the performance that McLaren had. Oscar losing out to George Russell in that first stint really hurt them,” said Davidson.

“I should imagine after Lando had found his way past Max, Oscar would have been then pressurizing Max big time, possibly done an undercut on him, then continued to stretch away and McLaren probably would have had a really comfortable one-two in that race.”

Martin Brundle thinks Oscar Piastri is an ‘engineer’s dream’

While Piastri was sat behind Leclerc for the last 15 laps, he started to struggle with his tyres in the dirty air behind the Ferrari.

Piastri was asked over the team radio by his engineer, Tom Stallard, and came back with a calm response despite dealing with the pressure of facing a podium finish in the final laps of the race.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Discussing his race in commentary, Brundle remarked that Piastri was an ‘engineer’s dream’ because of how level-headed he sounded but also felt that he would have a lot to learn from the mistakes made at the start of the race.

Damon Hill thinks that Piastri is similar to another former F1 World Champion, who could inspire him if he makes a title bid in future.