Jolyon Palmer questions McLaren’s ‘bizarre’ radio communication with Oscar Piastri at Chinese GP

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Oscar Piastri scored his only points at the Chinese Grand Prix during the Sprint, but Jolyon Palmer has questioned the race management from the pit wall.

Piastri finished sixth in the Saturday race to collect three points, getting him off the mark in the championship. He was running fifth on the penultimate lap but had to hand the position to Kimi Antonelli.

Piastri had overtaken Antonelli before crossing the start/finish line on the safety car restart. By giving the place back, he avoided a penalty that could have dropped him out of the points entirely.

Disaster for Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Alex Albon and Gabriel Bortoleto as they fail to start the Chinese Grand Prix!

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McLaren’s questionable handling of Oscar Piastri incident with Kimi Antonelli

On lap 18, engineer Tom Stallard said: “Oscar, give a position back to Antonelli. Give a position to Antonelli.”

“Why?” Piastri replied.

“Overtaking before the start/finish line,” Stallard answered.

Speaking in commentary for F1TV, Palmer questioned why it took McLaren ‘nearly two laps’ to issue this instruction when the matter was black and white.

• READ MORE: Oscar Piastri ‘could go at any time’ from McLaren as details of contract ‘get-out clause’ emerge

Palmer said: “A bizarre one for Piastri to be told, nearly two laps after he took it, to give back the place for something fundamentally against the rules.”

Had he received the order earlier, Piastri would have had more time to mount a fresh assault on Antonelli. While the Mercedes is clearly quicker than the McLaren, there have been countless ‘yo-yo’ battles where drivers have fought back with the aid of their battery.

The delayed communication arguably adds to the impression that McLaren, who have won the last two constructors’ championships, aren’t fighting on all cylinders this season. Perhaps they were looking for a way to avoid a penalty, but that outcome appeared inevitable.

Who was the last McLaren driver to notch consecutive DNS’s?

Neither Piastri nor teammate Lando Norris made it to the starting grid for Sunday’s race due to issues with the power unit. It’s the first time neither McLaren has lined up since the infamous US GP of 2005.

The result is that Piastri, who crashed out during the warm-up phase in Australia, is 12th in the championship after two rounds without an official racing lap to his name.

McLaren’s absence was ‘strange’ given that they had completed the rest of the weekend without issue. But they weren’t the only Mercedes-powered car to hit trouble.

Alex Albon didn’t take the start either in his Williams, while George Russell stopped on track during Q3.

Zak Brown called McLaren’s no-show ‘very frustrating’, but even that feels like an understatement. This would be an embarrassment for any team, let alone the reigning world champions.

Piastri is the first McLaren driver to log back-to-back DNS’s since the team’s founder, Bruce, in 1969.