Piastri labels his Singapore race as “good damage limitation“

F1 Grand Prix, GP Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit

Having secured a third place finish at the Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri went on to label his latest podium finish as a “good damage limitation.”

Hot on the heels of his surprise victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri looked slightly off the pace all through the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

The Australian seemingly got his act together in qualifying, but his final flying lap was only enough for P5 on the grid. Reflecting on the race, the Melbourne-born driver said that third place was the most he could salvage at the Marina Bay Circuit after losing the connection to Lando Norris and Max Verstappen behind the two Mercedes drivers.

“Yesterday [Saturday] obviously wasn't ideal, but today the aim was to get onto the podium. And I think losing so much time behind the Mercedes in the first thing meant that that was definitely the most we could have done. So walking away reasonably happy.

“Of course, I'd prefer to be sat in the middle. But I think it was a good damage limitation day today. Even through the weekend, I was struggling quite a lot in practice and felt like I made a good step into qualifying. Didn't execute as well as I needed to, but I feel like I've learned a lot through the weekend as well.

“So even if the end result wasn't exactly what I hoped, I think we've done a good job of maximising the points, especially for the team. It's a massive points haul for us, and I feel like I've learned some good lessons for next year as well. All in all, reasonably happy.

Pushed on to explain his strategy that saw him extend his first stint by a significant amount of laps compared to the Mercedes drivers, Piastri has acknowledged that the last laps on the yellow-banded mediums were a bit difficult to manage.

"It was difficult for the last few laps of the stint, but until then I could tell that we had a good pace advantage over Mercedes. And Lewis starting on the Soft meant that I was never really going to try and push to get him early on.

"I knew that the race was going to come to me much later on, and that's basically what we did. So, yeah, when I was in the dirty air behind them, it was tough, as it always is, but I knew that we had a good pace advantage and that the longer we kept going the more opportunities we opened up for ourselves the bigger tyre difference we had.

"If there was a Safety Car then we could have capitalised on it. So I think we executed it very well. The last few laps, it was trying to yeah get the team to pit me but It was all you know, pretty much under control."

Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix became the first ever race at the Marina Bay Circuit without a single safety car intervention. Asked how physical the Singapore Grand was without any sorts of interruption that would have allowed drivers to recharge their batteries, Piastri noted that the most difficult part came after the chequered flag fell.

"It was a tough race, definitely. Not on the same level as what we had in Qatar last year, I would say, but to be honest, it almost gets harder when it gets lonely.

"Once I got past the Mercedes, Max was, I think, 20 seconds ahead, and I knew I was a lot quicker than the Mercedes, so the last 15 laps felt longer than the first 45. So yeah, it was a tough race, definitely. It always is here. But in some ways having the air blowing in your face and stuff like that is almost quite nice.

"You know, the in-lap was actually probably... You know, when you stop concentrating so much and you don't have as much air in your face, it actually can feel worse. So definitely a tough evening, but that's what we're paid for.