An uncharacteristically fired up Oscar Piastri has ripped F1 stewards after he was stripped of a second-row start for Sunday night’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Piastri set the third fastest time in the final part of qualifying on Sunday morning (AEST), but will line up seventh after his time was deleted for running wide by the barest of margins.
Normally a calm and level-headed character, Piastri said the call was “embarrassing”.
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“We do all this work for track limits, put gravel in in places, and I didn’t even go off the track,” he said.
“I stayed on the track. That was probably my best turn six and it gets deleted.”
In commentary for Sky Sports, Martin Brundle said it was a “cruel” decision.
“He didn’t really touch the gravel. It’s always deceptive from onboard, but that’s a cruel call there for Piastri,” he said.
“Normally if you’re breaching track limits there, you’re in the gravel.”
Track limits violations have plagued the Austrian venue for the past several seasons, prompting organisers to install gravel traps on the outside of the final two corners in an effort to stop cars running wide.
Piastri ran wide at the exit of turn six, where the existing gravel trap was brought closer to the edge of the circuit. While his car crossed the white line by millimetres, he managed to keep his McLaren out of the gravel.
“I don’t know why they spend hundreds of thousands if not millions trying to change the last corners, when you still have corners you can go off.
“Anyway, everyone else kept it on the track, I didn’t. That’s how it goes.”
Piastri said track limits shouldn’t be an issue at a corner where touching the gravel would instantly ruin a lap anyway.
“That was the best turn six I took. I was right to the limit of the track, I think that’s what everyone wants to see,” he explained.
“We’ve spent so much effort trying to get rid of these problems, there is no reason this corner should be an issue for track limits, especially when you (stay out of) the gravel.
“Being the only one it’s happened to I’m probably more vocal about it, but it’s embarrassing that you see us pushing right to the limit of what we can do.
“If I’m once centimetre more, I’m in the gravel and my lap is completely ruined anyway.”
Piastri had finished second in the sprint race earlier in the day. He said said he is likely in for a tough race given he and McLaren teammate Lando Norris both battled tyre overheating issues in the 23-lap race.
“That makes life very tough, but we’ll try our best,” he said.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen is once again looking unbeatable, having taken yet another pole position – his fourth straight at the Austrian venue.
“It ended a three-race streak where the three-time defending F1 champion failed to take pole position, and dealt a blow to his closest rivals who hoped to challenge him on Red Bull’s home circuit this weekend.
“It’s been a while that we’ve actually been on pole. So it’s a great feeling,” Verstappen said.
“This is a great statement and hopefully we can also show that tomorrow in the race.”
But while qualifying in those last three races was decided by narrow margins, this one wasn’t even close.
Verstappen’s quickest lap was more than four tenths quicker than the next best time set by Lando Norris – a huge margin given the 64-second lap times. George Russell will start third after Piastri was demoted.
The Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes rounded out the top five.
Norris entered the weekend hoping to get even closer to Verstappen’s pace after consecutive runner-up finishes behind the Dutch driver, but may have to lower his expectations after Red Bull showed much better speed than McLaren throughout the day.
“Max was in a league of his own, clearly much quicker than what we had,” Norris said.
“We’re going to need something extra to go our way to beat the pace of Max and the Red Bull. … Normally we are better in the races than we are in qualifying, so we’ll see.”
Russell said he was pleased with third place after Mercedes used a setup that was meant to help save their tires for the grand prix rather than going all out in qualifying.
But he still didn’t hold out much hope of challenging for the win, unless the two drivers in front of him get into a tangle.
“I will sit back and watch (Norris and Verstappen) do their thing and try and hopefully just sneak through inside, but realistically they’ve got the pace on us,” Russell said.
“The race is probably going to be behind us, unfortunately.”
Daniel Ricciardo narrowly missed out on his second Q3 appearance of the season, and will line up 11th on the grid.
The race will get underway at 11pm (AEST).