Oscar Piastri Tipped to Use Controversial Lewis Hamilton Tactic vs Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri has been tipped to channel his inner Lewis Hamilton as he looks to beat Lando Norris and Max Verstappen to the Formula 1 world title.

Last weekend, Piastri dominated most of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend as he won the Sprint before securing pole position for the main race.

However, a strategic blunder from McLaren gifted victory to Verstappen, with Piastri finishing second and Norris in fourth place.

As a result, with just one race left, Piastri is now 16 points behind Norris and is also four points adrift of Verstappen.

For him to win his maiden title, Piastri has to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and hope that Norris finishes in sixth place or lower.

If the Australian finishes the race in second place, he will require Norris to finish 10th or lower and Verstappen to finish fourth or lower.

There will be a three-way battle in Abu Dhabi for the 2025 F1 world title. Image: Getty

Ahead of this weekend's finale, Sky Sports F1 lead commentator David Croft has said that he could see Piastri backing Norris into the pack to boost his title chances.

Croft said: "I can see Oscar winning the race, I can see a Lewis Hamilton/Nico Rosberg 2016 scenario, where Oscar doesn’t go quite as fast and might back his teammate up into the pack.

"That is absolutely acceptable, and I would expect nothing less. But I think Lando will emerge as champion with Oscar winning the race."

Back in 2016, Hamilton deployed the tactic against Nico Rosberg as the Brit looked to snatch the title away from his Mercedes teammate.

Hamilton, who was leading the race, held up Rosberg to bring the chasing pack closer to the German.

However, Hamilton's efforts were in vain as Rosberg managed to keep P2 and ended up winning the world title by five points.

After being criticised for his tactic, Hamilton said at the time: "I did nothing dangerous so I don't feel I did anything unfair.

"We were fighting for the championship. I was leading. I control the pace."

He added: "I don't know why they didn't just let us race. There was never a moment I felt I was going to lose the race but it is quite clear their thought process."

Meanwhile, Rosberg said: "That's a pretty simple discussion. You can understand the team's perspective and you can understand Lewis' perspective. That's it."

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