McLaren CEO Zak Brown has explained why 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Oscar Piastri was instructed to “hold position” when closing in on 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris at the Australian Grand Prix.

After getting by 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen on Lap 17, Piastri🅺 reeled Norris in with a ser🍒ies of fastest laps.

⛎On lap 29, he moved into DRS range of his teammate but was soo💟n told by McLaren to “hold position.”

Pi𝕴astri’s charge for th🧔e win faded as he dropped a couple of seconds behind Norris, who had run wide at Turn 6.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, Brown explained that they wanted both drivers to clear the traffic - they were lapping Haas’ Ollie Bearman at the🔴 time - before letting them battle on tr꧃ack.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with it,” Brown said. “We, Andrea and I on the pit wall, actua💮lly just kind of released him to go racing, and we just wanted to make sure we cleared the traffic.

“So that was a hold for a moment, and then it looked like he dropped a wheel and then fell back a bit of a gap. But I just t▨hink they were pushing really hard in very tricky conditions.”

Piastri could only come away from the ra𝓀ce with a P9 finish.

As rain fell during the latter half of the race, both McLaren driveಞrs 🌃ran off the track in the final sector.

While Norri🐼s could return to the track, Piastri slid off into the grass and 🌞was beached for a prolonged period.

The Safety Car for Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto’s cars allowed Piastri to get back in the fight, overtaking 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton to finish ninth.

“I feel terrible for Oscar. He drove such a brilliant race and they both came up on that rain at the sa☂me time,” Brown added.

“Lando was able to collect it up. For Oscar, a little bit more tricky, and he drove great to get back to P9 but awesome team effort in an exciting race🅷.”

Brown cautious about McLaren’s pace

I𝔍t was a great day for McLaren, who won the season opener for the first time since 2012꧅.

The var✃ious Safety Cars masked McLaren’s true advantage over the rest of the field.

On Lap 30, Norris🎃 and Piastri were over 16 seconds ahead of Verstappen in third, wh༺o struggled for pace following his mistake.

However🥀, Brown is remaining cautious about the rest 🐠of the season.

“It looked good, butꦓ, as we know, that’s one track, one race. Let’s see what ha🐠ppens in China,” he explained.

“But definitely, we’re starting the season very strong. But we saw, last year, Max won the first six, seven races, whatever it was,🦩 and then had a bit of a drought. So I think we just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”