Piastri doubts he would have passed Norris if race had been longer · RaceFans

August 4, 2025

in Racing

Reading Time: 2 mins read

Oscar Piastri mentioned he wouldn’t have been in a position to move Lando Norris to win the Hungarian Grand Prix even when the race had lasted longer.

The McLaren drivers had been separated by lower than seven tenths of a second on the finish of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Piastri made two makes an attempt to move Norris on the within of flip one and got here near hitting his crew mate there on the penultimate lap.

Piastri mentioned he was “assured” to start with about his possibilities of passing Norris, whose tyres had been 14 laps older than his. “However I knew it was going to be nonetheless extremely robust as a result of getting near the automotive forward is one factor, however making an attempt to overhaul is a very completely different story.”

Nonetheless as he struggled to get nearer to Norris, Piastri realised he wasn’t going to have the ability to move.

“I knew that I used to be catching him loads after I had clear air however as quickly as I obtained shut it was extremely robust to remain shut sufficient,” he defined. “There are such a lot of corners within the center sector that in some instances it virtually feels such as you do a greater job in some corners and then you definately pay the worth on the subsequent one since you’re even nearer. That made it very robust.

“With such lengthy corners [at the end of] the lap, it simply kills any downforce you’ve obtained. So I knew that was going to be extremely robust.

“Even when I had extra laps, I’m undecided the outcome would have been any completely different. However I definitely tried.”

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Though he briefly dropped additional again from Norris after his dramatic lock-up on the penultimate lap, Piastri mentioned it made little distinction to his efforts to move his crew mate.

“I used to be in a position to shut the hole once more fairly rapidly for the final lap,” he mentioned. “However like I mentioned, attending to inside six or seven tenths was do-able, however to then get even nearer than that, I feel I wanted model new softs to have the ability to do a lot from that time.

“So it was at all times going to be robust after I obtained shut. However you by no means need to not take a chance that you simply assume is there in case one other one by no means comes up. So I needed to go for it.

“In hindsight, clearly you possibly can say possibly I ought to have waited one other lap, however I’m fairly satisfied that even when I had waited another lap, it wouldn’t have modified something.”