Oscar Piastri admitted he didn’t do a good enough job when he lost the lead at the start of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
After making a clean start from pole position, Piastri left the way clear for Max Verstappen to sweep around the outside of him as they entered Tamburello. From there he never regained the lead of the race and finished third behind Verstappen and Lando Norris.
“It’s never a great day when you start first and finish third,” Piastri admitted after the race. “I think turn one was not ideal.”
“I thought I had it pretty under control, and it was a good move from Max,” he added. “So I’ll learn for next time, clearly.”
Asked whether he should have approached the corner differently, Piastri said: “I definitely would have done something different.
“I would have braked 10 metres later, probably. That’s all. Live and learn.”
After falling to second place, Piastri suffered a further setback when he became one of the first drivers to pit. As only a few other drivers pitted at the same time, he soon found himself in traffic, which cost him more time.
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He admitted the timing of when to pit was “not clear” in the early laps as drivers began to encounter tyre degradation. “I think a lot of people around were struggling. I was starting to struggle a bit.”
He said the team will review its decision. “We kind of discussed it a bit, but it’s something we still need to go through more clearly, because I think maybe we reacted a bit too quickly. But we’ll have a look.”
The race became more difficult for Piastri when other drivers, including Verstappen, were able to benefit from a Virtual Safety Car period to make their first pit stops.
“[With] the timing of the VSC and the safety car, the race was very tough from very early on,” said Piastri. “Honestly, given people had fresher tyres at the end, hanging on to a podium is not a bad result.
“You’re going have tough days in the championship, and this is clearly one of them. So as long as we learn the lessons, then that’s all I can ask.”
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