Piastri: Everyone is a legend on Monday after the race

Piastri did not put a foot wrong as he attempted to take his second Formula 1 career victory, passing teammate Lando Norris with a brilliant move at the chicane on Lap 1 and going on the lead the race.

But McLaren got outsmarted by Ferrari who took a risk stopping both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz once, which paid off massively, the result the former winning in front of the Tifosi.

However, McLaren played it safe, and while stopping Norris was probably justifiable as the Briton suffered from graining, the decision to pit Piastri twice may be debatable.

Speaking in parc ferme after the race, Piastri did not bother to hide his disappointment but admitted a one stop strategy might have been too much of a risk, he said: "It hurts. I’m not going to lie, it hurts a lot.

"I did a lot of things right today. There was a lot of question marks on the strategy going into the race," he added. "From the position we were in with the tyres looking like they did, doing a one stop seemed like a very risky call, and in the end it was right.

"Very, very happy with the pace, with the race that I managed to achieve. Just when you finish second it hurts."

When it was pointed out to him that Ferrari made a one-stop strategy work, Piastri was philosophical responding: "In hindsight, yes.

"But everyone’s a legend on Monday after the race or at the chequered flag, and today unfortunately we got it a bit wrong, and myself being a big part of that.

"We had everything to lose from being in the lead of the race. Charles [Leclerc] could try something a bit different. He was going to finish third either way and picked the right gamble today.

"The Mediums were getting destroyed and even the Hards on the Red Bull at the start looked pretty dead. And my front left was pretty heavily grained.

"We just didn’t expect it to clear back up again, which it did. Painful," the Aussie maintained.

McLaren had the better pace, and probably their over confidence pushed them toward pitting twice for tyres, hoping Leclerc would be caught and passed on track.

Piastri explained: "I thought [catching Leclerc] would be tough but I thought it would be possible. With the pace I had at the start, I think I was catching him at two seconds a lap.

"Had a few people that weren’t very helpful – Stroll was driving like he was in his first go-kart race, so that cost a couple of seconds.

"Just a bit painful, but I think we pretty much needed everything to go right on that last set of Hards and it just ultimately wasn’t quite enough," the 23-year-old from Melbourne concluded.