Piastri needs “crazy” results to become title contender despite Baku win · RaceFans

Oscar Piastri says he’s “under no illusion” about being a competitor for the world championship despite winning last time out in Baku.

The McLaren driver won last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, passing Charles Leclerc soon after his pit stop and taking the lead with a bold pass into turn one before repelling the Ferrari for the remainder of the race.

Piastri had expected to play second-fiddle over the weekend to team mate Lando Norris as the team confirmed they would “bias” Norris for the rest of the championship to aid his pursuit of Max Verstappen. However, an unexpected Q1 elimination for Norris left Piastri with an opportunity to fight for victory, which he took.

Despite having won his maiden grand prix in Hungary before the summer break, Piastri said his Azerbaijan victory was “definitely” more special than his first at the Hungaroring.

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“I think just the amount of hard work and pressure that I was under in Baku made it much sweeter,” he said.

“I think Hungary was definitely special, don’t get me wrong, but I think in any kind of race where you have to work so hard for such a long part of the race – I said last week I’ve had one race win like that in my career. Until Baku, it wasn’t necessarily my most dominant performance or my best performance, but it’s always the most exciting one. I think now Baku takes the cake for that. But the emotion after Baku was special for different reasons, compared to Hungary.”

Piastri’s win moved McLaren ahead of Red Bull to the top of the constructors’ championship and closed him to within 91 points of championship leader Verstappen and just 32 points behind Norris, who also has two wins this year. However, Piastri says he does not see himself as an outside threat for the title.

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“I think for me, maintaining the lead in the constructors championship now is by far a bigger target,” he said.

“I’m not out of the running for the drivers’ championship, but I think now, on average, I need to score over ten points more per weekend than Max, I think. So I can try and go out and win every race, but it’s now at the point where I need other things to start happening to win that. And for that to happen for seven races in a row is not very realistic.

“Of course, I will try and go into every weekend trying to get the best result I can and if the picture starts to look a bit brighter then that’s a bonus. But I’m certainly under no illusion that I’m well and truly in the fight for the championship. It’s more that if some crazy stuff happens, then I’ll be there to work my way into the fight.”