Oscar Piastri loses out in Qatar despite DHL Fastest Lap

Oscar Piastri delivered a flawless performance over the course of the Qatar race weekend but still came away from the Grand Prix as a loser. After a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the sprint, the McLaren driver again started Sunday’s race from pole position. However, a strategic error by the team not only resulted in defeat to Max Verstappen but also dropped him down to third place in the drivers’ championship.

In the run-up to the Qatar GP, Pirelli set a maximum limit of 25 laps per set of tires to avoid blowouts on the Lusail International Circuit. The race distance of 57 laps made the Qatar Grand Prix a mandatory two-stop contest with predictable pit stop times. The safety car deployment following the collision between Nico Hülkenberg and Pierre Gasly on lap 7 provided the ideal moment for the first stop. The entire field came in for a tire change – with the exception of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

This put the two McLaren drivers under extreme time pressure. Despite their strong pace, they were unable to make up the time lost on the missed golden opportunity. As a last resort, Piastri tried to close the gap on Verstappen by bringing forward his second pit stop. During the pursuit, he clocked his sixth DHL Fastest Lap of the campaign on lap 44 in a time of 1:22.996 minutes.

Nevertheless, it was not enough for victory in Qatar, and Piastri was understandably frustrated. “We had the pace for the win today, but we just didn’t make the right call. I tried my best to catch Max, and we left it all out there, so it’s painful not to get the win. There’s one final push next week. I’ll be trying to drive like I did this weekend and we’ll see what comes.”