Latest news with #DPABarcelonaChampionship
Qatar Tribune
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Qatar Tribune
Piastri wins Spanish GP despite late safety car
DPA Barcelona Championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren claimed his fifth Formula One win of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, as not even a late safety car disturbed his win. 'It has been a great year and this weekend has been exactly the kind of weekend I've been looking for. It is a lot of fun winning races at the moment,' Piastri said. Team-mate Lando Norris, who won the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend, was second ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Norris had closed the gap in the standings to Piastri to three points, but will leave Spain 10 points behind the Australian. 'Oscar drove a very good race today, didn't quite have the pace to match him but we gave it our best shot,' Norris said. Piastri had a great start to retain his lead, but also gave Red Bull's Max Verstappen a little tow, which helped the four-time defending champion to make a move on Norris for second place. The race was focused on the tyre strategy and McLaren did a great job to keep Piastri away from any trouble, while Norris recovered second place and Verstappen dropped to third. It looked like this was going to be the final top three, but the safety car was deployed on lap 55 after Kimi Antonelli parked up his Mercedes in the gravel with what looked like a mechanical issue. The leading trio took the chance to pit, with Verstappen taking a set of hard tyres. While Piastri and Norris on softs had no problem at the restart, Verstappen locked up and Leclerc made his way through to complete the podium. 'I mean when my engineers told me that Max was going on a new hard for the last stint, I was very optimistic as I knew how bad the hard was so that was when I knew I had to have a good restart!' Leclerc said. Nightmare race for Verstappen After being overtaken by Leclerc, Verstappen was also under pressure from Russell heading into the opening chicane and the Dutchman had to use the escape road as space quickly closed. Red Bull told Verstappen to let Russell through, but as he was preparing to let the Mercedes by, the two collided. Russell took fourth regardless, but Vertappen was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision and dropped from fifth to 10th. That meant Kick Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg was eventually fifth, his best finish since 2019, when he crossed the line in the same position. The German was praised by race winner Piastri, who said: 'I saw Hülkenberg finished fifth, which is pretty impressive so well done to him!' Hülkenberg did a move on seven-time Lewis Hamilton in the final laps, as the Ferrari man had to settle for sixth, followed by Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls and Pierre Gasly of Alpine. Home favourite Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin was ninth and Verstappen completed the top 10. F1 returns on June 15 at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Qatar Tribune
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Qatar Tribune
Piastri beats Norris for Spanish GP pole
DPA Barcelona Championship leader Oscar Piastri conjured up a special lap to beat McLaren team-mate Lando Norris on Saturday and take pole position for the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix. The Australian was a mere 0.017 seconds behind Norris after his first flying lap in Q3, but put up a better performance in his second attempt to clock 1 minute 11.546 seconds and claim his fourth pole of the season. Former F1 driver David Coulthard praised Piastri's performance, saying: 'I think this is one of those moments where you go 'I remember where I was when I saw one of the best shootouts for pole position in some time'.' Piastri replied that his lap 'wasn't perfect.' 'But happy with what I put in. It has been a good weekend so far,' he said. Norris, who had benefited from a little tow from Piastri in the first lap, finished 0.209 behind his team-mate. The Red Bull of four-time defending champion Max Verstappen completed the top three, 0.302 off the pace. 'Oscar drove very well. The pace was there, just a couple of mistakes and yeah, didn't do it,' said Norris, who took pole in Spain last year but was beaten by Verstappen. The Dutchman, however, thinks that it will be 'tough to beat' McLaren this time in Sunday's race. 'We were lacking all weekend compared to them, but we executed well and that third position is where we should be. I'm here, squeezing everything out of the car,' Verstappen said. His performance was at least much better than the one of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who will start the race in last. Following Norris' win in Monaco last weekend, Piastri retained his lead in the standings, but only three points ahead of his team-mate. McLaren have dominated the season, with Piastri winning four and Norris two of the eight races so far. Verstappen is the only non-McLaren driver to claim victory at a grand prix this year, having won in Japan and Imola. The Mercedes of George Russell qualified fourth, followed by the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli. Charles Leclerc was seventh after he failed to resume the session following his first lap in Q3, but Ferrari did not explain why he had not returned to the track. Pierre Gasly of Alpine was eighth and Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls was ninth. Home favourite Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin was 10th quickest as he was cheered by the Spanish crowd. But compatriot Carlos Sainz was only 18th with the Williams. Starting Grid Front row: Oscar Piastri (AUS/McLaren), Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren) 2nd row: Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull), George Russell (GBR/Mercedes) 3rd row: Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Ferrari), Kimi Antonelli (ITA/Mercedes) 4th row: Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari), Pierre Gasly (FRA/Alpine) 5th row: Isack Hadjar (FRA/RB), Fernando Alonso (ESP/Aston Martin) 6th row: Alex Albon (THA/Williams), Gabriel Bortoleto (BRA/Sauber) 7th row: Liam Lawson (NZL/RB), Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Martin) 8th row: Oliver Bearman (GBR/Haas), Nico Hulkenberg (GER/Sauber) 9th row: Esteban Ocon (FRA/Haas), Carlos Sainz (ESP/Williams) 10th rowcTypeface:> Franco Colapinto (ARG/Alpine), Yuki Tsunoda (JPN/Red Bull).
