Oscar Piastri had a home race to forget during the Australian Grand Prix, following a spin on track that put him down a lap.
The McLaren driver was chasing down teammate Lando Norris for the win when both of them skated off track in the greasy conditions, with Piastri going off again at Turn 13.
This proved to be a major error for the Australian as his car was beached on the grass, with Piastri unable to recover back onto the track. After putting his car into reverse and carefully applying the throttle, he managed to get himself unstuck and take to the pits of new tyres.
By this point he was a lap down in P14, but a late Safety Car for Fernando Alonso crashing enabled Piastri to un-lap himself. At this stage, Marc Priestley believes Piastri should have made a key strategic decision when speaking on BBC Sport.
Marc Priestley was surprised Oscar Piastri did not gamble at the end of Australian GP
Piastri recovered to P11 once the Safety Car period ended and set about chasing down the Ferrari drivers, with Charles Leclerc leading Lewis Hamilton after the former pulled off an overtake on the seven-time world champion at the restart.
After being promoted to the points because of a mistake by Pierre Gasly, the McLaren driver pull off a bold overtake around the outside of Hamilton on the final lap for P9.
He made it stick and recovered two points, although it was a question of what could have been for Piastri. Discussing his strategy options in the final laps, Priestley thinks he would’ve been better taking one risk.
“I’m so surprised why Oscar Piastri didn’t take the risk under the safety car given that he’s all the way at the back now, stick some slicks on and towards the end maybe start to make serious progress,” said Priestley.
Oscar Piastri team orders leaves F1 fans fuming
F1 fans were left fuming at the decision of McLaren to force Piastri to hold station behind Lando Norris when he was within a second of him.
McLaren wanted their drivers to clear the backmarkers before they allowed them to race, to prevent them from conceding time to Max Verstappen.
READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend
However, fans felt that McLaren should have let their drivers race when Piastri was close to Norris given he was also trying to get priority in the pit stops.
Norris took the opening victory from Verstappen, despite some late pressure from the Red Bull driver in the final three laps of the race.
