Oscar Piastri remarked that he was watching Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ battle with “popcorn” as he claimed second in Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix Sprint.
The Australian qualified third and was running in that position when Norris lunged down Verstappen’s inside into Turn 3 on Lap 3 and appeared to have taken the lead.
However, Norris rued not covering the inside line into the next corner as Verstappen steamed back past the McLaren into the Turn 4 braking zone to recover first spot.
With his team-mate’s line having been compromised, Piastri capitalised to cut underneath and he swooped around the outside into Turn 5 to move up to second place.
Piastri was unable to match Verstappen’s lap times, though, as the Red Bull driver scampered clear to take the chequered flag with a 4.6s advantage over the McLaren.
Asked whether he thought Verstappen was beatable in the opening stages as McLaren applied the pressure on the Dutchman, Piastri responded: “I thought so, yes.
“Yeah, he obviously had quite a good start compared to Lando and I. And then I just managed to stay in the DRS and got to the back of him.
“Alex [Wurz] on the grid summed it up well, I was sitting there with my popcorn waiting for whatever was going to unfold. And yeah, obviously, just stayed patient.
“And I managed to get Lando. And yeah, not quite enough to get Max. But yeah, just struggled a little bit in the second half of it.
“I think everyone was probably struggling with tyres a bit. But yeah, just didn’t quite have the pace to keep challenging in the second half of the Sprint.”
Verstappen was able to break clear and open up an advantage once he repelled the McLaren threat as Piastri dropped back into Norris’ clutches in the closing stages.
The ex-Alpine protege has conceded that it was tough to retain the place over his team-mate, but he was more optimistic he would remain ahead as the laps dwindled.
“It was tough at the start, definitely,” Piastri acknowledged. “I think once the car behind gets into the DRS, you know they have three shots at it.
“I think, to be honest, the tyres at that point were so hot for everybody that the DRS wasn’t having anywhere near as much of an impact as it did at the start of the race.
“So yeah, the last few laps, it was a little bit more comfortable. But yeah, would take was one mistake. So yeah, a difficult Sprint.”
Piastri has taken encouragement from his exploits at the Red Bull Ring as he reckons it shows he has overcome the issues that contributed to a tough Spain weekend.
“I think we’ve got all the answers from Barcelona on what we did wrong and what went wrong in the weekend,” he explained.
“I think, yeah, I was much happier with the car and in practice straight away.
“And yeah, obviously in Sprint quali yesterday, it was a good result and today as well. So yeah, I’m hoping Barcelona stays as a one-off.”
