Oscar Piastri has identified his off during qualifying for the Sao
Paulo Grand Prix as a factor in being caught up in the melee at
Turn 1 that effectively ended his race. During qualifying before
the storm hit, Piastri skated off the track at Turn 12, and left
himself without a time and 10th on the grid having made Q3. This
left him vulnerable at the start, with those caught up in the
incident, Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon all
starting directly behind the McLaren – with Magnussen’s Haas giving
the rear of the MCL60 a thump after he was clattered into by Albon.
Piastri sustained rear-wing and floor damage, although remarkably
the team was able to repair it under the red flag and get him back
out into the race, albeit one lap down with it becoming an extended
test session. Reflecting on his worst finish, 14th, since 12th in
Italy, Piastri felt all the damage was done with the qualifying
mistake, and that he’d left himself vulnerable. “I hit the brakes
for Turn 1, and then looked in the mirror and saw someone’s tyre
flying through the air and thought that didn’t look very good,”
Piastri told media including RacingNews365. “Then sure enough, I
got an impact after that, and it is a shame and there’s nothing I
could have done [to avoid it]. “But when you qualify in those sort
of positions, you leave yourself much more at risk, so it all kind
of started from Friday unfortunately. “I just tried to stay on the
lead lap, and learn as much as I could as it wasn’t the easiest of
weekends. “It was an amazing effort from everyone to get the car
back together in 20 minutes, which was no easy feat. I’ve got an
extra 70 laps that I otherwise wouldn’t have had, so I learned a
lot. “If I had started even where Lando did, or started further up
front, I wouldn’t have been [involved] in the crash. “You’ve got to
try and put yourself in the best position possible, and there’s no
point in blaming bad luck and not reflecting on things you can
improve.”
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