Oscar Piastri claims England are no saints after CONTROVERSIAL Ashes moment

Oscar Piastri

Piastri claims England are no saints after CONTROVERSIAL Ashes moment

The Australian F1 star was asked about the recent cricket controversy

Matthew Hobkinson Lead Editor

F1 Editor & Journalist

Tuesday 4 July 2023 14:57

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Australian Formula 1 star Oscar Piastri believes that England have had "their fair share of spirt of cricket moments", after the McLaren driver was asked for his thoughts on Jonny Bairstow's controversial dismissal in the last Ashes Test.

With the game on a knife-edge, some quick-thinking from Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey saw him throw the ball at Bairstow's stumps as the Englishman ambled out of his crease.

By the letter of the law, Bairstow was given out by the umpires. Yet the complaints from the English team revolved around the 'spirit of cricket', with captain Ben Stokes pointing to the fact that his fellow batsman had only left his crease as he believed the ball was 'dead'.

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Despite a valiant fightback from England, led by a heroic knock from Stokes, Australia clinched victory. Many have now claimed that Carey's actions to dismiss Bairstow in such a fashion have tainted the win.

Piastri: England are no saints

Yet for Piastri, the Australian believes that England themselves have acted in a very similar fashion before.

"It's obviously a controversial moment," he told Sky Sports. "I think in the laws of the game, the umpires decided it was out.

"There's there's always moments like that for and against. I remember England and [Stuart]. Broad in particular had their fair share of spirit of cricket moments too.

"It's always a controversial topic for every team. But yeah, the umpires decided it was out. So we'll move on to the next game and see what happens."

???#EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/dDGCnj4qNm
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 2, 2023

And although the Aussie is heading to the British Grand Prix in the middle of such a hard-fought Ashes series, Piastri is hopeful that he will have some fans by virtue of driving for McLaren.

He joked: "I might have to get a few more security guards! But that should be all good. I'm with a British team so hopefully there's at least a couple of people supporting me there."

Piastri hoping to replicate Norris

Team-mate Lando Norris had a strong showing in Austria, finishing in P4 after a post-race penalty was awarded to Carlos Sainz. And now that Piastri is set to have the same upgrades as the Briton, he is hopeful that another strong performance can take place this weekend.

"We'll have to see," he said. "I think we performed very well in Austria, on Lando's side in particular. I think the pace, even my car with with the old package, was very good over one lap.

"I think it struggled a bit in the race, like we have seen in some of the other races. So yeah, I'm hoping it's a good step forward.

"We'll have to see if we can continue that pace. I think obviously Mercedes and Aston [Martin] had probably a weaker weekend than we expected.

"So we'll have to see where we're getting closer to that fight with with those kinds of teams, but we'll have to see if we can do consistently."