Oscar Piastri was critical of McLaren’s decision-making in Imola after he was pitted into traffic early in the race.

Having lost the lead into Turn 1, Piastri was then forced to battle his way through a packed midfield as McLaren tried an alternative strategy.

Oscar Piastri reflects on chances lost at Imola GP

The pole-sitter was caught cold by a diving Max Verstappen who made it round in style in Turn 1 and having lost the advantage, McLaren made Piastri’s life harder by opting for an early pit.

“I think we made a few wrong calls,” Piastri said in the immediate aftermath. “Not our best Sunday.

“So definitely a lot of things to look at and review from that one.”

Asked about the early overtake, Piastri said he braked too early as Verstappen moved by.

“Just broke too early and yeah, I mean, it was a good move by Max as well.

“Well done to Max and Red Bull. It’s a good move but also they had pace today. We’ll look back at that one until we can do it better.

“Obviously the VSC was perfectly timed for Max and Lando and then I had used both my hard tyres at that point so it made the last restart pretty tricky and I tried my best to hang on to second.

“But just had nowhere near enough grip. I tried my best to hang on, but, just didn’t have the grip.”

It was a better day for Piastri’s team-mate Norris who benefited from the timing of the VSC.

Norris said he felt the team did what they could.

“It was a long, long race, not easy to overtake, but we did what we could,” Norris, who is now 13 points behind Piastri, said.

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“I think Max drove a good race. They were quick today and we couldn’t keep up.

“We had a good little battle at the end between Oscar and myself, which is always tense, but always good fun.

“But a good race from us as a team, second and third is great. Of course, we would love to be up there fighting against Max, but they were too good for us today.”

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