Piastri 'hurting' as Monza victory slips through fingers

Oscar Piastri conceded that losing the Italian Grand Prix "hurts", having led the majority of the race in Monza. 

The McLaren driver made an excellent start and caught Lando Norris by surprise at the fourth corner. 

Piastri swept around the outside of Norris, giving him the inside line for the second part of the Variante della Roggia. 

It promoted Piastri into the lead of the race, which he comfortably held until the closing stages. 

He gave the race lead to Charles Leclerc after pitting for a second time, although it was soon discovered that the Ferrari driver was attempting a one-stop strategy. 

Much to McLaren's surprise, the one-stop worked for Ferrari, with Piastri having been forced to settle for second behind Leclerc. 

Missing out on the win having led so much of the race was a bitter disappointment for Piastri.

"Yeah, it hurts," Piastri conceded. "I'm not going to lie, it hurts a lot. I did a lot of things right today. 

"There was a lot of question marks on the strategy going into the race. From the position we were in with the tyres looking like they did, doing a one-stop seemed like a very risky call, and it was right. 

"So, yeah, very happy with the pace, with the race that I managed to achieve just when you finish second it hurts."

McLaren strategy

Ferrari was the only top team who attempted the one-stop strategy, with McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull having all completed a two-stops.

Graining on both the medium and hard compounds was poor in Monza, yet what Piastri and McLaren did not expect was that the graining cleared in the closing laps. 

With this in mind, Piastri recognises the one-stop was better than the two-stop strategy, although it would have been a huge risk.

"In hindsight, yes," said Piastri. "But it's, you know, everyone's a legend on Monday after the race or or the checkered flag, and today, unfortunately, we got it a bit wrong. Myself being a big part of that. 

"We had everything to lose from being in the lead of the race. Charles could try something a bit different. He was going to finish third either way and picked the right hand.

"The mediums were getting destroyed. Even the hards and the Red Bull at the start looked pretty dead. 

"My front left was pretty heavily grained, just we didn't expect it to clear back up again, which it did."