Piastri and McLaren still happy with Sprint result: 'We tried our best.'

F1 News

Oscar Piastri happy with second place in Sprint race
29 July 2023 at 17:32
  • Toby McLuskie

Oscar Piastri had the lead in the Sprint for a few laps, but Max Verstappen was able to overtake the McLaren driver after Fernando Alonso found the gravel trap. Despite that, he was still able to finish second and the Australian is over the moon with his result at Spa.

"[I'm] very happy. We tried our best. We boxed when the safety car came in, led a few laps but we were no match for Max," he told Naomi Schiff after the Sprint in the pit lane, "[it's] nice to be there in P2, apart from Max, our pace was really strong."

He then continued on, handing praise to McLaren and the work they've done to improve his car's performance over the last few Grand Prix weekends, he explained: "Full credit to the team. The last three weekends have been pretty special compared to where we have been. We still have work to do to get to the top but it's a lot nicer to be up there. To lead my first laps, it's a day I won't forget."

He rounded out his post-Sprint interview by sharing his thoughts on Verstappen getting past him on the Safety Car restart and said: "I thought the safety car would be in my favour, fewer laps to hold him behind. I thought I had a decent restart but he was basically on top of me already at Eau Rouge!"