Oscar Piastri believes that he was in control of covering Lando Norris during the Dutch Grand Prix, and is “extremely proud” in the way he progressed after a challenging start of the weekend.
A year ago, Piastri struggled compared to Norris in Zandvoort, but this weekend he took the pole position with 0.012s and then led the entire race. Setting the fastest round, it also marked his first Grand Slam of pole, victory, fastest round and led every round, and Piaastri says he could respond to Norris’s threat before his teammate retired with a reliability problem.
“I think qualifying this weekend was the key,” said Piastri. “Because of the free practice sessions it looked like a difficult Zandvoort, but we demolished, tried to find time, adjust the car here and there, but just tried to really improve how I was driving, because let’s be honest, it’s quite hard to complain about the car we have!
“So just tried to leave with that and it worked out when it mattered. And because of the race I had the feeling that I also had a good pace and that then had that. So extremely proud of myself, but also the whole team around me to turn around 12 months ago.
“It was really a good race. I had the feeling that I had all the time under control all the time. It is clear that the restart is always difficult moments to get right, but I felt in my hand. It was clear that the end was a shame for Lando and the team not to have two if I really deserve it. But we were very proud of the week.
Championship Leader Piastri’s year-on-year progress can be clearly seen in his three seasons in Formula 1 so far, and he produced some team head Andrea Stella an “Oscar-like weekend” in the Netherlands.
“It happened a few times this year, where it started a bit slow and then got better as the weekend continued,” Piastri added. “The difference from this year until last year was last year, the weekends that slowly started, the middle was slow and the end was slow.
“I think it was just good to find the time while the weekend continues. Is it an ideal way? Do I do it on purpose? Not always. I naturally try to build up to things, but I hoped to build up a little faster than this weekend.
“So maybe a bit slow to get there, but I felt very happy with where I was eligible, not to be eligible, the world did not expect, just trying to do my best and see what happened. And in the end that was enough, and a similar thing [in the race]. Very happy from that side of things, and I think that part is probably the ‘Oscar-like weekend’. “
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