Oscar Piastri's Instagram post speaks volumes about his disaster in Qatar - as fans unleash on McLaren

Oscar Piastri has reacted to McLaren's disaster at the Qatar Grand Prix with a very telling Instagram post as his fans once again accused his team of ruining his world title chances by favouring Lando Norris. 

The Australian was left the picture of dismay as his world championship title hopes took a potentially decisive hit through a calamitous strategic blunder by his team.

Piastri, comfortably the fastest driver over the weekend in Lusail, had to settle for second behind victorious Max Verstappen on Sunday, slipping back to third in the title race after McLaren's gamble not to pit their drivers under an early safety car while all their rivals did.

It meant he lost what looked a surefire win, while teammate and championship leader Lando Norris could only finish fourth, his advantage trimmed to just 12 points over Red Bull's champ Verstappen going into the championship finale in Abu Dhabi next Sunday.

Piastri was left so fed up, he could only sigh to the team over the radio: 'I don't have any words...'

That theme continued when he took to Instagram after the chequered flag, posting a shot of him looking downcast with his second-place trophy and not adding a caption.

His fans were quick to pick up on what they saw as the meaning behind the post.

'No caption says so much,' one wrote.

'Came here to say the same thing,' added another. 

Piastri is now four points behind Verstappen in the fight for the drivers' title, as McLaren CEO Zak Brown admitted 'we clearly made a huge mistake' and team principal Andrea Stella added: 'We lost the victory with Oscar, and we lost the podium with Lando.'

The 24-year-old could only shrug despondently: 'Obviously, it's a little bit tough to swallow. Clearly, we didn't get it right tonight.

'I drove the best race that I could, as fast as I could, and left nothing left out there, but it wasn't to be unfortunately.

'In hindsight, it's pretty obvious what we would have done.'

Pole-sitter Piastri, who had dominated every session and won Saturday's sprint, again made a perfect launch while Verstappen slipped past Norris at the start to go second.

But McLaren decided to keep the pair on the track when the safety car was needed on lap seven after Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber collided with Pierre Gasly's Alpine, with every other team cashing in on what was effectively a free stop.

So Piastri and Norris ended up having to pit later and do the chasing in a race where two pit stops were mandatory.

After his second stop, Piastri, by now 17.5 seconds behind Verstappen, manfully reduced the deficit to under eight seconds by the finish but the Dutchman was untouched for his 70th grand prix win.

The baffling decision left Piastri's fans furious, with many pointing out that McLaren likely refused to pit their drivers under the safety car because that would have meant bringing both cars in at once.

Doing so would have disadvantaged Norris because he would have been second into the pits.

'What happened to lead driver getting preference for pit? In reality they didn’t want to hinder Lando with double stack so stayed out. This is def sign of Lando preference. In the end it stuffed both McLaren drivers and let Max now in striking position. Oscar faster all weekend,' one wrote on X.

'The English don't want the Aussies to beat their favourite,' added another, referring to the conspiracy theory that McLaren - who are based in England - have been biased in Norris's favour for a large chunk of the season.

'We have words Oscar …! Why don’t you call the team out ! Clearly they are bending over backwards to stuff you in order to hand lando the win. Oscar drive his heart out yet his team are bending over backwards to stop him for winning ahead of their golden boy,' another commenter wrote.

It could have been an even worse afternoon for Norris if he hadn't overtaken Kimi Antonelli on the last lap to snatch two extra points for fourth.

'It's the wrong decision, we shouldn't have done it, we didn't do a good job today,' said Norris. 

'That's life. Everyone has bad weekends. I take it on the chin, we all take it on the chin.'

But Norris, who would have lifted the title with a victory in Qatar, is still in control of his own destiny, with 25 points up for grabs for next week's victor.

But Piastri's hopes look bleak. Sixteen points behind Norris, even if he wins next week, his teammate could finish as low as fifth in Abu Dhabi and still be ahead of him.

Unless calamity strikes Norris, his best hope looks to finish as championship runner-up.

Asked what he could do to regroup, he shrugged: 'Just drive like I did this weekend. That's all I can do. It was more than good enough to dominate this weekend, so if I can do the same thing next weekend, we'll see.'

But Verstappen now looms as McLaren's worst nightmare. After a week in which McLaren boss Brown noted the Dutchman was like 'that guy in a horror movie who right as you think he's not coming back, he's back', Verstappen couldn't resist smiling afterwards: 'He can call me Chucky!'

Verstappen, 104 points behind the then leader Piastri at the end of August, didn't believe he could win in Qatar but could yet complete the most sensational of comebacks.

Still, though, even if he was to win in Abu Dhabi, third place for Norris would still be enough for the Briton to take the crown.

'But it's still possible now,' shrugged Verstappen, looking for title No.5 after his fifth win in the last eight grands prix.