Australia’s Oscar Piastri has missed out on a second F1 race victory after an apparent strategic blunder by his McLaren team to pit an additional time.
Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris had dominated Formula 1 since it returned from the European summer break, recording the biggest win of the season at the Dutch Grand Prix to announce himself as McLaren’s number one driver and a potential threat to Max Verstappen’s title hegemony.
But more importantly for McLaren, when Norris claimed pole for the Italian Grand Prix ahead of his teammate, was the chances of a constructors championship with Red Bull well within reach thanks to Sergio Perez’s poor campaign.
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So when Norris avoided a trademark poor start at Monza on Sunday night, it already looked simple – he would dash away from the pack with Piastri as his rear gunner, protecting him on route to a 1-2.
The Aussie had other ideas.
After successfully tucking in behind Norris on the opening straight, getting the slipstream and boxing out third-placed George Russell, Piastri used his pace to sneak up around the outside of Norris at the della Roggia chicane.
He almost bullied his way past Norris – legally, of course – to take the lead, less than three years after Daniel Ricciardo beat Norris to victory at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
“I don’t think Norris expected his teammate to do that!” Martin Brundle exclaimed on Sky Sports’ commentary.
“Team orders? What team orders?!” David Croft added.
But while Piastri’s brilliant move gave him the lead, the McLaren ate through its tyres – particularly the front left – and they chose to run a two-stop strategy.
That allowed Ferrari, who had qualified fourth and fifth for their home race and saw Charles Leclerc sneak into second when Norris was passed by Piastri, to gamble on a one-stop.
It paid dividends as Leclerc’s fading tyres held on just long enough to claim a famous victory in front of the tifosi.
It was a remarkable win given Leclerc had complained he was made to pit too early when he took his one and only stop for the hard tyres which took him to the end, 2.5 seconds ahead of Piastri.
Piastri had proven to be the fastest driver on the track after taking full advantage of the clean air given to him by the early race lead.
When Norris moved within touching distance of Piastri through 18 laps, he was mysteriously told the “papaya rules” would come into effect.
“You are allowed to race Oscar,” Norris’ race engineer told him later on.
Martin Brundle soon suggested: “I would imagine Norris is seething about that second chicane incident.”
A poor 6.2-second stop for Max Verstappen around lap 23, who had started seventh on the hards and moved onto another set of hards, guaranteed he would need a two-stop race and realistically threw away any chance of an unlikely podium.
With a lap fresher tyres Piastri showed brilliant pace in the second phase of the race, setting fastest lap after fastest lap and ensuring he didn’t let Norris into DRS range.
But what really gave Piastri a huge advantage came on lap 31, with a mistake by Norris at the della Roggia sending him back into the clutches of Leclerc, falling five seconds behind the leader and nearly costing him second place again.
Norris then boxed again on lap 33, with a slightly slower stop negating much of the undercut, but neither Piastri nor Leclerc boxed quickly anyway.
Piastri was asked by his race engineer on lap 38 of 53 whether he could run a one-stop and declared the front left was “pretty dead”; he had a slightly slow stop a lap later but came out ahead of Norris and Verstappen.
The big problem at this point was the pair of Ferraris leading the race, with Leclerc 17 seconds ahead with 13 laps left – not a problem for Piastri if the Monegasque was planning to pit, but a big problem if he could run to the end on the hards.
Meanwhile Norris had his own problem with Verstappen, who knew he had to pit again for a different compound but had no reason to rush, slowing down his championship rival.
Piastri made the important move for second on lap 45, but with less than eight laps to go was still 11.7 seconds behind leader Leclerc, whose tyres were fading but not quickly enough.
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