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 No💯rris in with a series of fastest laps.

On💎 lap 29, he moved into DRS range of his teammate but was soon told by McLaren to “hold position.”

Piastri’s charge for the win faded as he dropped a couple of seconds behind๊ Norris, who had run wide at Turn 6.

Speaking to Sk🦩y 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 track.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with it,” Brown said. “We, Andrea and I on the pit wall, actually jus෴t 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 �𒅌�I just think they were pushing really hard in very tricky conditions.”

Piastri could only come 𓄧away fromღ the race with a P9 finish.

As rain fell duringཧ the latter half of the race, both McLaren drivers ran off the track in the final sector.

While Norris could return to the track, Piastri slid off in🍒to 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 tha🥃t rain at the same time,” Brown added.

“Lando was able to c꧑ollect it up. For Oscar, a little bit more tricky, and he drove great to get back to P9 but awesome team effort in a✤n exciting race.”

Brown cautious about McLaren’s pace

It was a great day for McLaren, who won the season 🌌opener for the 💎first time since 2012.

The various Safety Cars masked McLaren’s true advantage over the res♕t of the f🍎ield.

On Lap 30, Norris and Piastri 🍸were over 16 seconds ahead of Verstappen in third, who struggled for pace following his mistake.

However, Brow💯꧃n is remaining cautious about the rest of the season.

“It looked good, but, as we know, that’s one track, one race. Let’s s🌃ee what happens in Ch🥀ina,” he explained.

“But definitely, we’re starting the se💛ason 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.”