'That's all?': Oscar Piastri caught up in hilarious hot mic moment after lacklustre Japanese Grand Prix

Hot microphones captured the hilarious moment Oscar Piastri shared the thoughts of millions of F1 fans following a lacklustre Japanese Grand Prix.

On his 24th birthday, Piastri finished third behind four-time world champion Max Verstappen and McLaren teammate Lando Norris in what was a sedentary at best race.

In the cool-down room where the top three mingle before the podium, a highlights package plays on a TV screen.

READ MORE: Tsunoda struggles in Red Bull debut at home grand prix

READ MORE: Fans leave early as Turbo-less Manly ravaged by Storm

READ MORE: 'Must've been pumped': Star's bizarre injury as Knights' crippled

At Suzuka, it played the race start, a minor off, the moment Norris and Verstappen battled side-by-side at pit exit before half race distance, and then Verstappen taking the chequered flag.

"That's all the highlights? That's all that happened in that race?" Piastri said.

Norris replied saying "nothing happened", and that he didn't think there was a single overtake.

"For a race that felt like it was pretty flat-out, there was nothing ..." Piastri continued before the world feed cut away.

The first third of the Suzuka circuit had been resurfaced ahead of the 2025 race, which decreased tyre wear and increased speeds, which made overtaking nearly impossible.

Meanwhile, team principal Andrea Stella defended the decision not to order Norris to let Piastri past to try and overtake Verstappen for the win.

Piastri closed to about half a second of his teammate at one point but was unable to get past.

The Aussie radioed his team on lap 42 of 53 saying he had the pace "to get Max", which is basically asking for the team to order Norris to let him through.

Standard practice in such an order would be that if Piastri was not successful, he would have let Norris back past on the last lap.

The order never came, and the three podium finishers - and indeed the entire top six and eight of the top-10 - finished in grid order.

Several drivers - including Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc - all described their races as "boring".

Speaking to Sky Sports, Stella said the team's data suggested the attacking car needed to be eight tenths of a second quicker than the car in front to be able to make an overtake.

At no stage were either McLaren driver close to being that much quicker than Verstappen.

"Because you are in the slipstream and as soon as you get within one second you get a lot of dirty air and your performance drops," Stella said.

"It's fair that Oscar makes the comment and gives the input, but it was not possible to make the overtake."

He said Piastri only got as close to Norris as he did because the Brit was managing his own tyres in order to try and mount a late attack on Verstappen.

"I think we need to be a little careful judging superficially," Stella added.

Piastri said he was "completely fine" with the decision and lamented the small error on his final lap in qualifying that cost him a shot at pole position.

"I wasn't really expecting (to be let past), I just said what I felt," he said on Sky Sports.

"I thought if I had the opportunity to get in front, then maybe I could go and get Max because my pace felt very strong.

"I was able to get into DRS [within one second of Norris] relatively comfortably - I just couldn't get any closer than that.

"I thought I'd at least ask the question, but that's completely fine with me.

"We all want to go racing, and finish where we finished because we earned it, and I think we can both say after qualifying that's the result we deserved."

The F1 season continues with the Bahrain Grand Prix in the early hours of next Monday morning (AEST).