Oscar Piastri regarding his puncture in Singapore: “Interestingly, it might have actually benefitted me.”
Oscar Piastri feels that the puncture he experienced during the Singapore Grand Prix actually aided him in overtaking Lewis Hamilton for fifth place in Sunday’s Formula 1 event.
Piastri was in a solitary sixth position, trailing Hamilton in third by 20 seconds and his teammate Lando Norris by seven seconds, when the virtual safety car was deployed on lap 39 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit due to Lance Stroll's clutch problem.
Even though Hamilton had the oldest tyres among the leading drivers, he chose to remain out on the worn soft compound. Piastri, whose medium tyres were 15 laps newer, also opted to stay out, but a slow puncture ultimately compelled the McLaren driver into a second pit stop on lap 41.
After rejoining the race on soft tyres with a 37-second gap to Hamilton, Piastri managed to close that distance by two seconds per lap, catching up by the antepenultimate lap. The Ferrari driver fiercely defended his position but was unable to hold off Piastri at the end of the 44-lap race on the red-walled tyres.
“That was definitely the maximum we could achieve; we didn’t have the pace for anything more. Obviously, this is a massive race for track position,” Piastri noted.
“I believe I did quite well personally. The puncture was unfortunate, but ironically, it probably worked in my favor. I passed Lewis at the end, so there’s a silver lining to everything.”
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Reflecting on his overtaking maneuver, the Australian remarked: “It was challenging, because once you get to that point, it doesn't take much to overheat the tyres and you can get stuck at their pace.
“But given how quickly I was closing in, I would have been pretty disappointed if I hadn’t managed to pass. So, it was a bit of excitement, which was nice, because otherwise, it was quite a solitary race.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella stated that the cause of the slow puncture was still unclear, and the team would investigate it with tyre supplier Pirelli.
“This is honestly a rather unusual occurrence,” Stella said. “It’s the first time I’ve heard of a slow puncture this year. It didn’t cost Oscar much today, but in a tighter race, it could have led to a significant loss of time, so it’s definitely something we need to address. I don’t believe this is an issue specific to our team. Ideally, we want to prevent this for all competitors.”
Piastri’s “pretty lonely race” marked his 13th consecutive grand prix without a podium finish—his worst stretch since the start of his rookie season in 2023.
The 2025 title contender had achieved 28 top-three finishes across his previous 57 races.
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