Oscar Piastri apologised to McLaren after admitting to “pushing the boundaries” in the incident that nearly saw him collide with team-mate Lando Norris in their battle for Austrian Grand Prix victory.

Just a fortnight after the two McLarens made contact when a misjudgement from Norris saw him hit the back of his team-mate’s car, Piastri came within inches of doing likewise on lap 20 when he went for a move down the inside of Turn Four but locked his front tyres.

The two cars just avoided contact as Norris turned into the corner, with the Briton going on to hold the lead and win the race ahead of Piastri to cut his team-mate’s world title lead to 15 points.

Soon after his subsequent first pit stop, Piastri was warned by his race engineer Tom Stallard: “Feedback from the pit wall, the manoeuvre in Turn Four with the lock up was too marginal. We can’t do that again.”

After the race, an apologetic Piastri acknowledged on McLaren team radio: “Sorry for the move in Turn Four. My bad.”

Elaborating further later, the Australian said of McLaren’s pit-wall instruction: “I mean, I thought it was a fair comment.

“Locking up and missing the back of your team-mate by not a lot is certainly pushing the boundaries.

“Even if I hadn’t been told anything, I didn’t think it was a wise decision to try that one again. So, yeah, a fair comment and nothing more than that.“

Team boss Andrea Stella told Sky Sports F1: “We needed to give Oscar a bit of advice in terms of the manoeuvre in corner four, which he actually acknowledged.

“I’m proud of him for how he said straight after the chequered flag that he was sorry for that manoeuvre, he went a little too far.

“It’s not easy. It’s Formula 1, he’s racing hard, but it’s a good day.”

McLaren ‘very proud’ of drivers after close, tense duel

The dominant McLaren pair had already gone wheel to wheel for several corners nine laps earlier, with Piastri briefly gaining the lead into Turn Three only for Norris to retake the position before the next corner.

And with the team-mates having ultimately battled without contact, Stella said the team were “very happy, very proud of how they handled the situation” on the track.

He added: “They are obviously stressful moments but we trust, we rely on Oscar and Lando. And also, once we are on the pit wall, you just try to stay as chilled as possible, analyse rationally what is going.

“But for us, it was clear that the guys both needed to have the opportunity to win the race, as long as they do it in the way they’ve done it today.

“So it’s a great spectacle for Formula 1. We are happy that we entertain our fans and we look forward to more races like this, even if, yes, it may give us some nervousness on the pit wall. But that’s what we’re here for.”

Piastri added: “There have been a few battles in the past, not just last week, but last year and the year before. So, I think we both knew what to expect.

“It was a tough battle. It was close at some points, probably pushing the limits a bit much from my side once or twice. But we’re fighting for race wins in Formula 1.

“It’s going to be pretty tough work and pretty hard. I thought it was an entertaining race. After the first stop, maybe we didn’t do the right thing giving Lando some breathing room, but the first 20 laps were pretty intense. So, it was a good battle.”

Next up in the 2025 Formula 1 season is the big one, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone – live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Showcase with coverage from Thursday to Sunday’s race at 3pm. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime.