Piastri tells Sainz to 'look in the mirror' after blue-flag clash costs him Hungarian GP lead

Oscar Piastri has called out Carlos Sainz for ignoring blue flags during the Hungarian Grand Prix, saying the Williams driver needs to “look in the mirror” after their collision at Turn 2 cost the Australian the race lead.

Piastri had pitted from first place for his second stop when he rejoined behind Sainz and Fernando Alonso, who were scrapping over a position outside the points. As Sainz cut back to the racing line, he moved into Piastri’s McLaren, unaware the championship contender was alongside him. Piastri escaped without damage but lost enough time to cede the lead to team-mate Lando Norris.

While a GPS glitch meant blue-flag warnings were not displaying correctly on the drivers’ steering wheels, marshal-operated light panels around the circuit were still showing the signal. Piastri argued that was sufficient reason for Sainz to have been aware.

“I was right behind him. I couldn’t believe what happened,” Piastri said after the race. “Getting crashed into by a lapped car is never one of the things you expect that can go wrong in your race. I don’t really care if he didn’t see me. The fact that he didn’t and no one told him or there was a lack of complete awareness is unacceptable.”

Piastri also took aim at Sainz’s combative approach to the midfield battle, noting the irony given the Spaniard’s reputation for voicing frustration at others on track. “He was fighting Fernando for last place like it was the world championship. It cost me the lead of the race. He’s quite critical of others. Others have given him some stick before for being frustrating on track. When you go and do something like that, I think maybe you should look in the mirror a bit.”

Sainz offered his own account, explaining that the absence of a blue-flag warning on his dash left him with no indication he was about to be lapped, and that Piastri was in his blind spot at the critical moment. “At this stage, I had no idea I was about to get lapped and on top of that I was in a big fight with Fernando trying to undercut him into the corner and I wouldn’t have expected Oscar to be there,” Sainz said. “Even if I had expected [him], he was in my dead angle, so it was impossible, honestly, from my side to avoid it.”

Piastri also briefly directed sarcasm at his own McLaren pit wall for the timing of the stop that placed him in lapped traffic, though he later acknowledged accepting the team’s strategic reasoning once he had time to reflect.