AUSSIE DRIVER IN THE MIDDLE OF MCLAREN CIVIL WAR AFTER BLUNDERED STRATEGIES COST BOTH OSCAR PIASTRI AND LANDO NORRIS VICTORY

Oscar Piastri slammed by fans of Lando Norris for opportunistic move
Some believe Aussie is compromising Norris's F1 title hopes
Norris said controversial move from Piastri was ‘way too close’

Aussie F1 star Oscar Piastri has been criticised by Lando Norris fans after the McLaren star stunned his British teammate at the Italian Grand Prix.

Piastri drove another excellent race overnight to finish second behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with Norris completing the podium in third.

McLaren were well positioned to control the race, but Piastri appeared to surprise Norris by overtaking him on the opening lap.

From there the 23-year-old spent much of the race in the lead, but a bold one-stop strategy by Ferrari saw Leclerc snatch the victory from the Australian.

Following the race, many fans of Norris slammed Piastri for jeopardising his teammate's chances of catching Max Verstappen.

'Race should have been over after the first corner, Piastri move ended up completely compromising the team. An easy 1-2 gone,' posted a fan on X.

'Exactly today showed us Oscar is a (rat emoji),' replied another.

'You guys need to liquidate this team. You guys are throwing away an easy world championship for Norris,' posted a third.

Norris admitted after the GP that he was surprised by the move from Piastri on Lap 1.

'A little bit (surprised). Obviously I would have just braked a bit later if I needed to. We had a big gap behind and, between us two cars, there's no risk,' Norris told Sky Sports F1.

'I feel like he got way too close for comfort – we both easily could have been out in that corner if I braked one metre later.

'Obviously if I could rewind I would do stuff slightly differently, but it is what it is. Oscar drove a good race and so did Charles.'

Piastri insisted that he pulled off a clean move.

'I broke later and got around the outside,' he said.

'There wasn't really much more to it than that.

'We both got through it unscathed. I knew once I hit the brakes I kind of got ahead a bit and knew I was entitled to stay on the outside.

'For 38 laps, it put me in a race-winning position. So it was just a good first lap.'

When asked if the strategy from McLaren was wrong, Piastri admitted it was.

'In hindsight, yes. But everyone's a legend on Monday or after the race, but today we got it wrong, myself being a big part of that,' he said.

'We had everything to lose and Charles tried something a bit different, as he was going to finish third either way.'

Despite the extra stop, Piastri almost made up the time but was caught behind Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll.

'I asked basically straight away what pace I needed to do to go and get Charles and the pace I needed was basically what I did for the first few laps,' Piastri said.

'At that point, I was pretty optimistic. But you know, I lost a decent amount of time behind Carlos. You had Stroll driving like it was his first go-kart race. I don't know what went through his brain when he saw his blue flag. That cost another second.

'I needed that stint to be perfect to win that race and those little things are ultimately what cost us a bit of a chance. It would have been a long shot anyway, but it was certainly not far off from being able to achieve it.'

2024-09-02T00:44:32Z dg43tfdfdgfd