Oscar Piastri concedes 'going too far' after rare FIA warning

Oscar Piastri has conceded that it was "easy to go too far" after receiving a rare warning from the FIA in the Spanish Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver was handed a black and white flag for exceeding track limits during the race, in which he was carrying damage on the front-wing after first corner contact with George Russell's Mercedes. 

As the damage continued to impact the handling and performance of the MCL40, Piastri picked up a rare black and white flag for driving standards as he was deemed to be cutting corners and exceeding track limits. 

Reflecting after his eighth-placed finish, his worst since 11th in Canada, Piastri explained how the contact with Russell happened and why he was pushing the boundaries, and picked up the rare flag warning. 

"It was just a tough afternoon from literally the start," reflected Piastri to media, including RacingNews365, after his 11th consecutive grand prix without a podium finish. 

"From then on, the rest of the race was very compromised, obviously with some of the damage and the track position mainly.

"I was alongside, and he just kept squeezing me to the wall, and then I hit the brakes and kind of avoided him. But amongst all that, he hit the brakes as well. Everyone hit the brakes, and we kind of got stuck together and everything. 

"I was just expecting a bit more space, and obviously between a car and a wall, you can't make any more space, so that was tricky. 

"On a track like this, you're always searching for a bit of clean air in the high-speed corners, and with no kerb or wall on the inside of some of the corners, it's very easy to just go a little bit too far."

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Piastri's "good race"

Despite finishing eighth, 1m:30s behind team-mate Lando Norris and the last car on the lead lap, Piastri felt he had enjoyed a good race "in clean air" but being stucked in a "train" had cost him after emerging from the pits behind cars, including Franco Colapinto's Alpine, who finished seventh. 

"I think the pace and clean air on the hard was pretty good, but we were trying to make up the pit loss of the VSC to the guys who pitted, and once they got the loss back, I was stuck again, so that was painful," said Piastri. 

"Then when we pitted onto the medium, we pitted into a four-car train, and that wasn't great, and the medium tyre was just awful. 

"It was good for [one lap], and then it was pretty terrible, so a lot of things to try and fix."