Oscar Piastri took his third win in five races at the Saudi Arabian GP, moving the McLaren driver into the championship lead and ahead of his teammate, Lando Norris.
Despite starting second for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri didn’t plan on staying there for long. He dove to the inside of Max Verstappen into the first corner, and fought hard for the lead. After pushing Verstappen to the edge of the corner, the Red Bull driver ran wide and maintained the lead.
But Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty for the incident, and after the pit stops, Piastri took the lead and held it until the end of the race. With his teammate down in fourth, the Australian moved into the championship lead on his 51st race start in Formula 1.
However, despite the achievement, Piastri plans to focus on racing and avoid getting caught up in where he stands. He told the media after the race, “I think I still want to go out and try and win every race I can. I’m not that bothered by the fact that I’m leading the championship. But I’m proud of the work and the reasons behind why we’re leading the championship.”
Since his spin at his home race, Piastri has been striving for perfection. He said, “I think obviously Melbourne wasn’t a great start to the year in terms of results. But from the moment I’ve hit the track this season.”
“I felt like I’ve been in a good place, and I think at the moment, leading the championship is a result of all the hard work we’ve done in the off-season. The hard work I’ve done personally, the hard work the team’s done.”
A tough battle
It wasn’t an easy battle for Oscar Piastri, with the unforgiving nature of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit being high risk, high reward. Piastri’s teammate saw the other end of the spectrum when he met the wall in Q3 bringing his qualifying to an early end. But Piastri relished the dangerous nature of the weekend.
He said, “It’s a track I’ve always enjoyed. You know, even going back to F2, it was a track I enjoyed a lot and had a lot of success at. So yeah, it’s a cool circuit, rewards a lot of commitment.”
The Australian also admitted that it was ‘tough’, but clean air once again became a vital factor in his win. “It wasn’t the easiest of wins. I think the start was tough, the first in was tough behind Max. And then once I had some clean air, then it was a bit easier to manage, but I still couldn’t afford to take my foot off the gas.”
“It was a difficult race and Max was quick behind me, so I had to keep pushing. I think I could control it reasonably well, but it was a little bit tighter than I would have liked. You say you could control it.”
Piastri set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap, but despite having a moment of extra speed, the championship leader denied that he had much more to give. He said, “I don’t know how long I could have done that, but I felt like I was taking decent risks for the race. The last lap, obviously, I wanted to see exactly what I had, but there’s not too much point taking a crazy risk as well.”
McLaren dominance?
While Lando Norris claimed that Red Bull was the fastest car on track, Piastri vehemently disagreed. “I think our car was still quicker. It was difficult to be in dirty air. I think Max was quicker than I expected for sure in the race.”
Piastri joked post-race that he would’ve liked the gap to be bigger between the MCL39 and Max Verstappen’s RB21. Saying, “So I think the pace wasn’t as much of an advantage as I wanted it to be, but it was still enough.”
Looking forward to the rest of the season, Oscar Piastri remarked, “ultimately, I want to be leading it after round 24, not round five.” With a short break before heading to Miami, Piastri will be looking to carefully extend his lead.
