McLaren | Andrea Stella explains the reason for Piastri's withdrawal to America

La McLaren can certainly smile about what happened to Austin, given the second place earned by Norris after the disqualification of Hamilton. The pace shown by the English driver was still good, especially in the first stint, when he overtook Leclerc at the start and remained in the lead for several laps. In those situations however, the other MCL60, the one of Piastres was forced to retire due to a loss of water pressure. Despite the damage caused in the first meters of the race, the Australian was able to maintain himself in sixth position, and was trying to make up for the poor performance in the Sprint Race. All nullified by the retirement at the end of a truly unlucky weekend for the rookie of the Woking team.

“The contact between the left front wheel of Oscar's car with one of the Alpine cars caused damage to the water system in the side under the bodywork – said Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal to the media present in Austin. This meant a constant loss of water pressure, and so the temperatures got out of control, the pressure kept dropping dramatically and we were forced to retire the car.”