Oscar Piastri has addressed his controversial Instagram repost of Bernie Ecclestone’s comments about McLaren favoring Lando Norris in the F1 drivers’ championship. The Australian driver couldn’t offer a concrete explanation for his action, which he claimed was accidental. Ecclestone had made his comments around two weeks ago. The ‘F1 Supremo’, who founded the Formula One Group in 1987, accused McLaren of a ‘British bias’ “McLaren prefers the English driver Norris,” the 94-year-old told Sport. de. “He has more star quality and marketing appeal for them, has more camera presence and publicity. That’s probably why it’s better for McLaren.” Oscar Piastri reposted an Instagram post on day one of the Las Vegas GP weekend, which had those quotes, before deleting it shortly after. It sparked controversy on social media, and after the qualifying session on Saturday, he was asked to address the matter. “I don’t know,” he told RN365. “I woke up this morning and saw it, so I don’t know, maybe I accidentally did it. Obviously, it was not intentional. But yeah, I didn’t know what had happened. So I don’t know.” Bernie Ecclestone’s comments came in the aftermath of the flipping of fortunes at McLaren. Oscar Piastri, the championship leader for most of the season, witnessed a mysterious drop in performance, while Lando Norris scripted his path to the top to lead the championship by 24 points. On Saturday, Norris clinched pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix in wet conditions, while Piastri could only manage P5. However, this time around, the Australian driver was affected by some misfortune in the form of yellow flags, which forced him to abort his final flying lap in Q3. Oscar Piastri admits to more complication in the championship fight after Las Vegas qualifying Coming into the Las Vegas GP weekend, Oscar Piastri knew he needed to finish ahead of Lando Norris at all three remaining races and the Sprint in Qatar to have a shot at winning the drivers’ championship. However, he encountered a big hurdle at the very first step, qualifying four positions behind his McLaren teammate in Sin City. But it’s Las Vegas after all, so a lot could happen. We’ve seen pretty entertaining races here the last couple of years, a lot of action, so hopefully I can get myself involved on the right side of that action and make up some ground tomorrow.” Piastri was surprised by the behavior of the tires in the wet qualifying session. The wheelspin, even in fifth and sixth gears, caught him off guard. However, the 50-lap race on Sunday is expected to be in dry conditions, with the 24-year-old hoping for at least a podium finish.
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