'Proud' Piastri extends championship lead with Spanish GP victory

New Straits Times

2 days ago

BARCELONA: Oscar Piastri drove with exemplary calm and control in a torrid race on Sunday to beat rival and team-mate Lando Norris as McLaren claimed a first Spanish Grand Prix victory since 2005 with a resounding 1-2 triumph.
The 24-year-old Australian came home 2.4 seconds clear of Norris to extend his lead in the drivers' championship to 10 points with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finishing third after a dramatic finale.
Four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull went for a three-stop strategy that resulted in him losing third place in the final laps before being handed a 10-second penalty for crashing into Mercedes' George Russell who finished fourth.
It was Piastri's fifth win of the season and the seventh win of his career - and his eighth consecutive podium finish for McLaren, a feat that had only been achieved before by three-time champion Ayrton Senna and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.
Nico Hulkenberg was fifth, from 15th on the grid, for Sauber ahead of Hamilton in a Ferrari, Racing Bulls' rookie Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly of Alpine.
Two-time champion and local hero Fernando Alonso finished ninth for Aston Martin with Verstappen classified 10th after his bruising late incidents which prompted 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg to suggest he deserved to be black-flagged and disqualified.
"It was a bit of a surprise to see Max try a three-stop and it nearly worked for him," said Piastri.
"But it's been a great weekend overall. The overall pace was really good and we could turn it on when we needed to - and I am just very proud of the work we've done this weekend.
"It's a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. It's been a superb weekend."
Monaco winner Norris started second but ceded his position to Verstappen on the first lap before battling back to follow his teammate home.
"Oscar drove a very good race today," said Norris.
"I didn't quite have the pace to match him. We gave it our best shot. It's a long race and anything could have happened at the end of the race.
"We both got pretty sideways with the safety car restart. It was a good, fun race and for us as a team to finish one-two is even better."
Leclerc said he was encouraged to attack Verstappen when he realised he had been given hards for the late re-start that followed a Safety Car intervention, while he was on softs.
"When the engineers told me that Max was going on a hard tyre for the last stint, I was very optimistic because I knew how bad the hard was," he said.
"That's when I knew I needed to have a good restart. Luckily, there was an opportunity.
"It was a battle for track position to get the slipstream from the guys in front. Max wanted to bring me towards the inside where there was all the rubber, so I didn't want to go there.