Oscar Piastri powers to brilliant Spanish Grand Prix victory and extends F1 title lead

7NEWS

3 days ago

Australia's Oscar Piastri has won the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of his teammate Lando Norris as McLaren continued their early dominance of the Formula 1 championship.
The 24-year-old Melburnian banked his fifth win of the campaign on Sunday, flying away from pole position and executing a flawless race to extend his lead in the driver standings.
Briton Norris crossed behind Piastri after he recovered from a bad start, while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was third.
It was the third McLaren one-two of the season and the team's seventh win in nine races, with Piastri taking five of those victories.
'It's a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. A superb weekend,' said Piastri, who finished third last weekend in a race won from pole by Norris.
Piastri's win, by 2.4 seconds, which came despite a late safety car, has extended his title advantage over Norris from three points to 10.
'We executed everything we needed to. I am really enjoying it,' Piastri added.
'The pace was good and we could turn it on when we needed to. The team gave me a great car and winning races is a lot of fun.'
Norris said: 'Oscar drove a very good race. I didn't have the pace to match him but I gave it my best shot.'
'It's a long race, anything could have happened at the end of the race,' he said.
'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.'
World champion Max Verstappen crossed fifth but was dropped to 10th place after he was given a 10-second penalty for colliding with Mercedes' fourth-place finisher George Russell late on.
Verstappen, who made four stops in total and ended up on the slower hard tyres against rivals on softs, collided with Leclerc and twice with Mercedes' Russell after the safety car restart.
The Dutch driver and Leclerc also faced a post-race investigation for their clash that could lead to further sanctions.
'I tried to push him to the left, there was a bit of contact but fortunately no consequences,' said Leclerc.
Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg finished fifth for the future Audi team after passing Ferrari's seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap.
Hamilton was a disappointing sixth, Isack Hadjar seventh for Racing Bulls and Pierre Gasly eighth for Renault-owned Alpine.
Home hero Fernando Alonso scored his first points of the season with Aston Martin, who had only one car on the grid due to Lance Stroll's withdrawal through injury after Saturday's qualifying.
Piastri led away cleanly at the start with Verstappen seizing second from Norris while Hamilton and Leclerc moved up to fourth and fifth as Russell lost out.
Hamilton let Leclerc through on lap 10 of 66 after the two Ferraris had run nose to tail.
Norris took back second place from Verstappen on lap 13, the Dutch driver making no attempt to defend against the quicker McLaren and pitting in the next lap for fresh tyres.
Verstappen took the lead again on lap 23 after Piastri pitted, with Norris making his first stop on lap 21 and coming out behind the Red Bull, but that lasted only until Verstappen pitted for a second time on lap 30.
He came in for a third stop on lap 47 but Norris pitted the lap after to defend second place.
A safety car deployment on lap 55, after Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli beached his Mercedes in the gravel, bunched up the field and triggered a rash of stops.
The McLarens came in together for fresh tyres, double-stacking, and resumed ahead of Verstappen who questioned the switch to a set of hards but was told that was the only option available.