An Australian F1 great has hailed Oscar Piastri’s victory at the Dutch Grand Prix as a “big day for Australian motorsport”, while Lando Norris said “it hurts” to lose 25 points in the title race after he did not finish for the second time this season.
Norris was ruled out of the race with only seven laps remaining as an oil leak and engine failure left him to disappointingly say, “f***, I’m out, I’m out … unlucky, boys” on team radio.
Piastri’s lead atop the driver’s standings has grown to 34 points, and the implications of Norris’ disastrous Sunday in Zandvoort on the title race has been on everyone’s lips in the aftermath.
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“I just want to go have a burger and go home,” a dejected Norris told Sky Sports post-race.
“It’s frustrating, it’s not like I’m happy about today. It hurts and to lose, 25 points outright, it would have been seven points, it would have been smaller.
“I just have to keep fighting, keep doing what I can. I was quick today. I thought I could fight for a win. If you’re fighting for a win around here, that’s normally just a good job already.
“I take the positives, I look on, I’ll try to bounce back. I’ve got tough competition, so it’s never going to be easy, but really make sure I do everything I can.”
Norris’ disappointment made for an interesting mood in the McLaren garage.
On one hand, the constructor’s standings leaders were jubilant about another race victory, but also embarrassed at one of their cars breaking down.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella summed up the emotions by telling Sky Sports, “I think today we experienced the two sides of motorsport”.
“On one side, we have the joy, the satisfaction of another victory for McLaren, a deserved victory for Oscar – he ran a very strong and clean weekend,” Stella continued.
“And on the opposite side, we have the disappointment and the pain for our retirement. Lando was in contention to try to win the race. It was certainly P1, P2 possible today for McLaren. We had the joy and the pain at the same time, this is motor racing.”
He added: “We’ve identified an issue on the chassis side, and we will do a full review before we go racing again in Monza. This is the first technical problem for the team after a long run of faultless reliability. Thank you to the entire team for their continued effort which led to another victory, as we continue our journey together.”
There was widespread sympathy for Norris with 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve saying an engine failure is an unfortunate blow that Piastri may not have to deal with.
“It’s really tough because it’s not in the driver’s hands, and he will feel that it’s so unfair,” Villeneuve said on Sky Sports.
“In the past it didn’t matter because a lot of cars broke down, so it would always balance out.
“But now, cars don’t break down anymore, so when one breaks down, it probably won’t be balanced by the other side.”
Russell and Piastri clash in the pits | 00:32
Regardless of Norris’ disappointing day, it does not take away from the brilliance of Piastri.
The 24-year-old has now matched his manager, Mark Webber, with nine career race wins and surpassed Daniel Ricciardo’s total of eight.
This was his seventh race victory of the year, the most ever by an Australian driver in one F1 season.
Piastri is now only behind the absolute icons of the sport in Australia for career wins as three-time world champion Jack Brabham tasted victory 14 times, while world champion Alan Jones notched 12 victories in his career.
Webber was trackside in the Netherlands, and was grabbed by Sky Sports for an interview, where he shared his delight in Piastri gaining bragging rights over him.
“Magnificent. He drove so well today,” Webber said.
“I don’t do many interviews about him, but I think today, big day for Australian motorsport.
“We’ve had Daniel [Ricciardo] win plenty, obviously Jack [Brabham] and AJ [Alan Jones].
“Oscar now, having this success so early in his career, is a real credit to him. He’s put a huge amount of work in, executed beautifully, and the team have done such a good job as well.
“I’m happy. We’ve had a lot of banter between the two of us. We have had a lot of banter. But’s he’s on me now, and I’m very, very, very happy.
“I think he’s going to, hopefully, keep going.”
The result was a significant turnaround from last year as Piastri finished fourth, almost 30 seconds behind winner Norris.
The Australian has made a habit this year of changing his fortunes at tracks where he has struggled in the past, namely also in Spain and China.
He has also became more ruthless in his efficiency, upping his win percentage when starting from pole position to 80 per cent, the best of all time.
“It feels good obviously, I controlled the race when I needed to and obviously it was incredibly unfortunate for Lando at the end,” Piastri said.
“I felt like I was in control in that one and felt like I used the pace when I needed to, it was a bit of a different race to 12 months ago.
“I’m very happy with all the work I’ve done to try and improve around here and very satisfied to come out on top.
“We didn’t change anything special, just trying to improve everywhere we can.
“The start of this weekend was looking like a difficult one and I managed to get it together in qualifying and I was happy with the pace I had today.
“There were a couple of safety cars that spiced it up a little bit. I’m very proud of the whole team and it wasn’t just myself to improve to get here it was the whole team around me and without them, none of this is possible.”
He added: “I think qualifying was the key this weekend. Through the free practice sessions, it was looking like a difficult Zandvoort again, but we chipped away, tried to find time, tweak the car here and there.
“But, I just tried to really improve how I was driving because, let’s be honest, it’s pretty hard to complain about the car we’ve got. So just tried to chip away with that and it came good when it mattered.
“Through the race today, I felt like I had good pace as well and used that when I needed to. So massively proud of firstly myself, but also the whole team around me in turning it around from 12 months ago.”
Despite his now sizeable gap in the standings from Norris, Piastri was far from convinced that he has the title stitched up with nine races remaining.
If his words are anything to go by, there will be no complacency creeping in to the Melburnian’s psyche.
“There’s still a long way to go. I need to keep pushing and trying to win races still,” Piastri said.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a very comfortable margin. As we saw today, it can change with one DNF very, very quickly.
“So this far out from the end of the year, it’s not a comfortable gap.”
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