Piastri rues crucial detail that hindered Belgian victory hunt

Oscar Piastri has suggested his battle with Charles Leclerc for third place cost him the chance of a race victory at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Piastri took the final spot on the podium behind the Mercedes duo, with George Russell winning ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Piastri moved ahead of Leclerc on lap 36 of the race before going in pursuit of the Silver Arrows in front.

However, the Australian conceded the handful of laps he spent following Leclerc’s Ferrari hampered his tyres for the final push to the chequered flag.

“It took me a couple of laps to get past Charles and I really overheated the tyres doing that,” Piastri said. 

“Clearly the pace of George, staying out there on one set of Hards was the right thing to do. So we just didn’t quite have enough pace to mow him down. Even Lewis didn’t quite have enough.”

The result marked PIastri’s fourth podium result of the year, lifting him to fourth place in the drivers’ standings.

The only key mistake Piastri appeared to make during the race was running too long in his pit box for his final stop, resulting in the front jackman taking a hit. 

“I think that’s the second or third time this year we’ve tried to run over the front jack. so I’ll try not to do that next time,” Piastri said.

“I’m very happy with the results and I don’t think we could have done too much more.”