Oscar Piastri pinpoints what ‘ruined his race’ after ‘disappointing’ Dutch Grand Prix

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Oscar Piastri was left with a disappointing finish to the Dutch Grand Prix after missing out on a podium in fourth place.

The Australian lost out at the start of the race to George Russell, after getting a poor getaway off the start line from third on the grid.

During the pit stops McLaren decided to leave Oscar Piastri out slightly longer than Lando Norris to get the tyre offset on his rivals at the end and potentially bring home a one-two, but he ended up behind Russell in the second stint.

After passing the Mercedes driver he put pressure on Charles Leclerc in the closing stages of the race, getting close to the Ferrari and within his DRS range.

Piastri was unable to take the final podium position away, despite his lap times looking threatening to Max Verstappen in second at the end. Norris won the race by over 20 seconds from the Dutchman, showing there was a lot of pace in the McLaren in free air.

Reflecting on his performance on Sky Sports, Piastri pinpointed what specifically ‘ruined’ his race after finishing lower than where he started.

Oscar Piastri pinpoints why Dutch Grand Prix was ‘disappointing’

The Australian was on the same tyre strategy as Norris having only been pitted five laps later than his teammate. Even with the tyre offset, he was unable to make progress at the end of the race.

Piastri explained why he had a bad start and believes there was one factor that impacted the McLaren MCL38 the most when not in clean air.

“It was a disappointing result given the pace of the car, just not the best race. [At the start] I think we both suffered from the same thing, just didn’t get a good launch at all and that was pretty much it,” said Piastri.

“It seemed like we had a similar issue, if it was just us two our starts would have been even but when you compare it to everyone else we were pretty average. Something to look at, but quite a few things to look at and review.

“Getting stuck in dirty air ruined my race. I had a decent tyre delta to Russell and thought I could get past him quickly, but to try and get to Leclerc I had to use the tyres pretty hard and I just didn’t have enough left. The pace in the car was strong, the qualifying is still where weekends can be won and lost.”

Oscar Piastri returns after breaking a rib

After outscoring Norris in the two races before the summer break, it was looking like an impressive first half of the season for Piastri.

It was even more remarkable when it emerged that he was racing with a broken rib as early as the British GP, the details of which he shared on social media.

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

The source of the broken rib was traced back to a poorly fitted seat in his McLaren, and he only found out at Silverstone that he had the injury.

The Australian has earned praise for his season so far, with 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill saying that Piastri is similar to three-time World Champion Jackie Stewart.