McLaren star Oscar Piastri has revealed that he was racing with a broken bone in the lead up to Formula 1's summer break.
The Australian has been enjoying a brilliant sophomore season, winning the first grand prix of his career in Hungary – a win which now looks all the more impressive.
Piastri posted a 'summer break' tweet, which contained three pictures of him celebrating and one of a scan with a clearly broken bone – helpfully labelled as a sixth rib fracture.
“First part of the season done. First GP victory. First broken bone. Rib’s enjoying the break,” he wrote.
The date on the scan suggests that the break came during the British Grand Prix, which took place the previous day, although it's unclear exactly when the injury occurred given that Piastri's issues in that race were mostly strategy related.
The next race came two weeks later at the Hungaroring, a race which Piastri won in controversial team order-related circumstances to stand on the top step of the podium on a Sunday for the first time in his career.
Given that the average broken rib takes roughly six weeks to heal, it seems likely that Piastri was in significant discomfort inside the cockpit of his McLaren – giving the victory another layer of gloss.
His team are also closing in on Red Bull in the constructors’ championship, with 42 points separating the two teams and 10 races left remaining in the season.
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