What Oscar Piastri said about Max Verstappen in Belgian GP cooldown room

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had expected Max Verstappen to be faster than he was in the Red Bull during the Belgian Grand Prix.

Verstappen dominated qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps, but for the third year in a row took a grid penalty after receiving a fifth internal combustion engine of the season, with four the maximum permitted.

Oscar Piastri expected Max Verstappen to be ‘bit quicker’

Historically, a grid drop has not been enough to stop Verstappen at Spa, the Belgian-born Dutchman having won here from P14 on the grid in 2022 and P6 last year, but there were no such heroics this time around, Verstappen recovering to P5 only.

Piastri completed the podium behind Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, Russell later disqualified due to an underweight car, and as the trio headed for the cooldown room, Piastri attempted to start a conversation with Hamilton about Verstappen, who he had expected to be faster in the race.

“I thought Max was going to be a bit quicker than that,” Piastri said to Hamilton, who replied only to ask where Verstappen finished.

Then-race winner Russell would make a similar comment to Hamilton as he took his seat.

“Surprised the Red Bulls didn’t come through more,” said Russell.

Again, Hamilton was not a man of many words, the seven-time World Champion having been looking good for victory throughout much of the race, only for Russell to pull off a sensational one-stop and nurse his hard tyres to the win at the time. Of course, the victory has transferred to Hamilton after all.

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Piastri was proving more talkative for Russell, who suggested to Piastri that “the medium wasn’t the right choice”, that the tyre compound which Verstappen moved on to for his final stint.

Piastri shook his head in agreement with Russell’s statement, before replying with a smile: “Didn’t even need two hards, just needed one!”

It was Russell who had called for the switch to a one-stop strategy, the Brit explaining that the Spa-Francorchamps track was gripping up with each passing lap.

“Every single lap the track was gripping up and it was just getting better and better,” he told Piastri.

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