Martin Brundle has apologised to Oscar Piastri for snubbing an interview with the McLaren driver, claiming that wasn’t his finest grid-walk moment.
Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle is known for his grid-walks on race days, during which he walks around the grid and chats with different drivers, team members, and even celebrities.
Over his 26 years of hosting the feature for different broadcasters, he has had his fair share of challenging situations when certain personalities have either overlooked him, been rude to him, or have taken offense at the fact that he is trying to talk to them.
However, this time Brundle was at fault as the pundit completely interrupted Piastri’s conversation and started speaking to Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, who was celebrating his 27th birthday.
Piastri made the decision to simply leave in order to get ready for the race, putting Brundle in a very difficult situation without an interviewee. After the race, Piastri decided to speak out about the incident on the X app, previously known as Twitter.
“Shall we finish that interview in Suzuka @MBrundleF1?” Piastri said.
Brundle replied: “Um, yes sorry about that Oscar, wasn’t my finest gridwalk moment in 26 years.
“Just wanted to wish Esteban happy birthday as he strode past, but you were DRS open and full battery and quite rightly dropped me like an Aussie Rules rookie.”
However, it didn’t appear to have an impact on Piastri’s performance as he put in yet another strong effort in the McLaren to move up from 17th to seventh.
