Piastri reveals the reason for his pit stop mistake

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri nearly caused a dangerous incident after making a mistake undertaking his second pit stop at Spa. The Australian denies that he could have achieved a better result without his mistake.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri looked quick all through the race, especially after his second stop. While Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, who led the field in the early stages of the race, opted for an early second stop, the Australian stayed out on track to extend his second stint.

The Hungarian Grand Prix winner then made good use of the grip advantage on his fresher tyres to close in on Leclerc and got ahead of the Monegasque. In the dying stages of the 44-lap Belgian Grand Prix, Piastri joined the leading duo of Russell and Hamilton, but he did not have enough time to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre.

However, his charge was slowed down somewhat when he pitted from the lead on Lap 31 and overshot his box, resulting in a stop of 4.4s.

Reflecting on his mistake, Piastri said: "No, I mean I just went in a bit hot really. I felt like on Friday there was a lot of grip in the pit lane and I was kind of always undershooting the box.

"Even my first pit stop I probably undershot it a little bit. I had to brake a little bit, with Lewis coming out, so maybe I was coming in a bit slow. but the second one clearly was a little bit overdone.

"It wasn't my finest moment. I don't think it really cost much in the scheme of things. I think it meant I probably would have just been stuck behind Lewis and George for another lap or two at the end. But yeah, obviously, something I want to tidy up for all the other races," noted Piastri.

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella did not echo Piastri's words, claiming that his error proved costly at the Belgian Grand Prix.

“Oscar said immediately in the in-lap on the radio, ‘apologies for the pit stop’, because I think he realised that that would have been a bit costly, because potentially he would have just queued behind Hamilton but he could also have been in condition to attack.

“So I think this one-and-a-half/two-second loss at the pit stop ultimately proved to be relatively costly, and even because then he would have been behind Leclerc earlier with fresher tyres, which means he could have finalised the overtaking more easily.

“We do have to work with drivers in terms of, even in the hot moments, just don’t overcook it at the pit stop position, because it can be very costly. I think we had something similar in Silverstone as well.”