Piastri 'made his case' with Turn 1 move on Verstappen in Saudi Arabia

F1

Saudi Arabian GP winner Piastri admits Turn 1 move was key to his victory over Verstappen

Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen fight it out at the start of the Saudi Arabian GP

Verstappen went off to keep the lead from Piastri

Getty Images

Oscar Piastri believes he ‘made his case’ with his Turn 1 overtake attempt on Max Verstappen at the start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver moved into the championship lead on Sunday after winning his third race of the season and the second in a row after his Bahrain GP victory.

Piastri’s win was not without some controversy, however, as he was involved in an incident with Verstappen going into Turn 1 at the start.

The Australian had made a better start and arrived at the corner on the inside, seemingly ready to take the lead.

But Verstappen cut through Turn 2 and kept the lead, a move that was penalised with five seconds that proved key to the final result, something Piastri acknowledged.

“I made my case into Turn 1 and yeah, that was enough,” said Piastri, who crossed the finish line 2.8 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

“Once I got on the inside I wasn’t coming out turn one in second, so I tried my best.

“Obviously the stewards had to get involved, but I thought I was plenty far enough up and yeah, in the end that’s what got me the race.

“So I’m very, very happy with all the work we’ve been doing since the start and yeah, that’s what won us the race today.”

Piastri, now leading the championship by 10 points from team-mate Lando Norris, was around three seconds behind Verstappen when he made his pitstop.

Related article

Two laps in clean air before Verstappen pitted allowed the McLaren driver to close the gap even further, emerging in the lead when his rival pitted.

Despite the win, Piastri feels McLaren needs to do more to improve its pace as he said Verstappen was a “bit too close”.

“It was really tricky to follow out there,” Piastri added. “I couldn’t really stay with Max at the end of the first stint. Just chewed up my tyres and then the clean air was nice after the pitstop.

“We did the parts we needed to right. Still need a bit more, I think. Max was a little bit too close for our liking, but a great race and a great weekend.”

Verstappen, meanwhile, refused to answer a question about the Turn 1 incident when interviewed post-race by David Coulthard.

“Yeah, I’m going to keep it quite short,” he replied. “I just want to say a big thank you to the fans here in Jeddah. It’s been a great weekend. I love the track. And yeah, the rest is what it is.”

Comments

Loading Comments