Piastri: “Thinking about canceling the qualifying lap, 2nd place hurts” | FP

Never take anything for granted

‘Match ends when referee blows his whistle‘. A historic phrase from the legendary Vujadin Boskov who still today underlines the importance of never taking any result for granted until the actual conclusion of a football match is reached. A quote that can easily also apply to any other sporting event, such as a Formula 1 GP.

Suddenly the podium

The most concrete example came with the Austrian Grand Prix, which until the end seemed like a matter reserved only for Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, at least until the two friendly drivers (who knows if they will still be friends) came into contact, with damage that opened the doors to success for George Russell. The British driver’s celebration added to that of Oscar Piastriwho after what happened in the post-qualifying on Saturday could hardly have imagined a race closed at 2nd placehowever not far from the dream of victory.

What would have happened without the erased time?

The Australian McLaren driver, who had set the third fastest time in Q3, had his fastest lap cancelled for not respecting the track limits at the exit of turn 6, the same point where the #81 had also made some applause-worthy overtaking moves during the race. The Woking team had lodged an official protest with the FIA ​​to regain third place on the starting grid, with the Federation proving to be inflexible.

There is no shortage of regrets

For Piastri there is therefore the satisfaction of a podium finish, but also some regret for what the result of the GP would have been if it had not been for the cancellation of the lap: “I’m a little disappointed – explained to Sky Sports F1 – 2nd place is obviously a good result, but knowing what would happen next it honestly hurtsespecially due to the nature of yesterday’s penalty. AND’ my fault, but no one else received that penalty. Seeing the evidence, which then led to the cancellation of my lap, it burned me a lot, then looking at the images they used to demonstrate that my lap should have been cancelled. Today though I had a fire inside me to get a good result and I’m happy with the podium, though It’s hard not to think about the ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’“.