Oscar Piastri at the post-sprint press conference

Piastri airs out Hungarian loss: 'Then you pay the price'

16:28, 05 Aug

Updated: 17:33, 05 Aug

bySavannah Lenz

Oscar Piastri came in second during the Hungarian Grand Prix, right behind his teammate Lando Norris. It was a hard-fought race, but Piastri was unable to pass Norris for the win.

After being asked how he felt about his 12th podium of the year, he said, "Mixed, I would say. You know, whenever you lose a race by such a little amount, it's obviously a bit painful, but I'm sure it was entertaining from the outside."

'It was incredibly tough'

"It was entertaining from the inside as well. Pretty fun race, all things considered. But, obviously, when you're on the losing side of that battle, it's a little bit difficult. We tried our best, and we got ahead of Charles."

During the race, Piastri was asked who he wanted to beat, Leclerc or Norris. He went with Norris but was unable to overtake him for first. He did, however, pass Leclerc, who ended the race in fourth.

Piastri continued, "I don't know what happened to him in the last stint, some things to look back on, whether we should have done something a bit different in terms of strategy, but very easy to say in hindsight."

When asked about the last five laps of the race with Norris, Piastri said, "I was confident, but I knew it was going to be still incredibly tough because getting close to the car ahead is one thing, but trying to overtake is a completely different story."

Piastri drives MCL39 at the Hungaroring

"I knew that I was catching him a lot when I had clean air, but as soon as I got close, it was incredibly tough to stay close enough. There are so many corners in the middle sector that, in some cases, it almost feels like you do a better job in some corners, and then you pay the price at the next one because you're even closer. "

Piastri had made it within DRS but while battling Norris, he went wide at one of the corners, putting him a little further back.

"That made it very tough. And then with such long corners to end the lap, it just kills any downforce you've got. So, I knew that was going to be incredibly tough. "

He admits, "Even if I had more laps, I'm not sure the result would have been any different, but I certainly tried."