Piastri hits out at Stroll after 'driving like it was his first go-kart race'

Oscar Piastri has taken aim at Lance Stroll for his behaviour under blue flags towards the end of the Italian Grand Prix.

In the closing stages of the race, Piastri was chasing race leader Charles Leclerc on fresher tyres in the hunt for victory.

Leclerc and Ferrari opted to run a one-stop strategy to the chequered flag which saw it win by two and a half seconds over Piastri.

Piastri closed the gap by several seconds after moving ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz - but stated the time spent behind the Spaniard, as well as difficulty lapping Lance Stroll, hurt his chances.

“I asked basically straight away what pace I needed to do to go and get Charles,” Piastri told media including RacingNews365. 

“And the pace I needed was basically what I did for the first few laps. And at that point, I was pretty optimistic.

“I lost a decent amount of time behind Carlos. You had Stroll driving like it was his first go-kart race and I don't know what went through his brain when he saw his blue flag. That cost another second.”

Piastri had to settle for second place on the road, the fourth time this year he has claimed the runner-up spot.

While Piastri conceded his chance of the win was a “long shot”, he asserted getting stuck in traffic cost him the opportunity to put race-winner Leclerc under serious pressure.

“I needed that stint to be perfect to win that race,” he said. “Those little things are ultimately what cost us a bit of a chance. 

“It would have been a long shot anyway. It was certainly not far off from being able to achieve it. But yeah, I was pushing flat out to try and do it. 

“I couldn't have gone any faster than that. So just came up a bit short.”