Oscar Piastri defends his McLaren team radio call to pass Lando Norris

Oscar Piastꦓri asked McLaren to let him pass La🐼ndo Norris to attack Max Verstappen

Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri hinted via team radio th♔at he should be allow🌟ed to pass at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

The McLaren drivers were both trailing Red Bull’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen, who eventually went on to win at Suzuka.

But 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Oscar Piastri, who finished third, was hoping McLaren might switch their drivers to give him a crack at chasing down Ve🍨rstappen.

"I th🎀ink I have the pace to get Max,” he said on his team radio on Lap 44.

But, McLaren were not tempted to let him pass Norris, who finished second behind Verst🍸appen.

“I wasn🌺’t expecting it,” Piastri said about his team radio request to Sky Sports.

“I just said what I felt. I thought that if I had the opportun🍨ity to ꧅get in front of Lando, then maybe I could get Max.

“My pace felt strong. I was able to get into DRS relatively comfortably💫 but I couldn’t get it closer than that.

♔“I thought I’d ask the question𝔍 but that’s fine by me.

“We go racing and want to finish wherever we finꦗish because we earned it. We can both say that, after qualifying, that’s the result we deserve.”

Jacques Ville🐠neuve’s verdict was: “Oscar could not get Lando, which means he probably couldn’t get Max either, because he had the straight-line speed.☂”

Oscar Piastri on McLaren strategy

Piastri, Verstappen
Piastri, Verstappen

The F1 Japanese Grand Prix was largely won by Sဣaturday’s qualifying, with pole-sitter Verstappen able to convert into victory.

But McLaren’s strategy has been questioned.

As well as opting not to swap their drivers and let Piastri chal൲lenge Verstappen, their pit stops were✃ also scrutinised.

Team boss Andrea Stella claimed “pit stop timing was 🔯pretty🍎 much set by the other people pitting”.

Piastri said about splitting their strategy: “It was a bit of a discussion. I had people behind who had already pi🌄tted and we didn’t w♉ant to take much risk.

“I was starting to struggle on the medium. Already, we had goneꦡ long on the medium.

“W🐬e’ll look to see if there’s anything we could have done differently. But we executed a good race.”

McLaren’s calls were justified beca﷽use the result in Japan strengthened their lead at the top of the constructo🥂rs’ championship.

Norris al🌄so leads♋ Verstappen by one point at the top of the drivers’.

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