Piastri praises McLaren’s clarity to seal fifth win of the season

Oscar Piastri ranked the Spanish Grand Prix weekend as “one of the strongest” of his career, offering his praise to McLaren for “not getting distracted” by unexpected strategies on his way to securing his fifth win of the season.

Piastri’s world-class qualifying efforts allowed him to become the final driver to start a Grand Prix from pole position at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the Spanish event set to relocate to Madrid from 2026 onwards.

He made great use of that accolade when the five lights went out in Barcelona, getting the perfect jump off the line as his championship rivals battled it out into the first corner.

Max Verstappen came out on top after completing a sweeping overtake around the outside of Lando Norris, setting his sights on the Australian less than a second down the road.

He remained within touching distance for the first three laps, even having a look down the inside of the first corner before Piastri responded, setting the then-fastest lap of the race as he built a 1.4-second lead over the Red Bull driver.

That margin over second place — driver varying between Verstappen and Norris — blew out to 12.7 seconds by the time McLaren called Piastri in for his first pitstop of the race, relinquishing his soft compound tyres for the more durable medium compound when he rejoined in P2.

With more pace in hand than the leading Red Bull, his journey up to the rear of the RB21 was an easy one, however, before the fight could come to a head, Verstappen made his second stop of the day, reinstating the Australian’s lead. 

The gap between the two McLaren teammates hovered around the five-second mark before Norris was told to push at the risk of Verstappen closing in, though that threat never arrived, and the duo settled into a steady rhythm out in front.

Piastri made his second stop on Lap 49, maintaining first place as he rejoined the race on the soft compound tyre with a 5.2-second advantage over Norris — an interval that grew as the #4 encountered unmoving back-markers during his third stint.

“[The race] felt mostly under control,” Piastri said. 

“I think I wasn’t really expecting Max to try a three-stop race, and I wasn’t really expecting it to work… Well, almost work as well as it did either. 

“So there was a bit going on at that point definitely, and just with all the traffic and the blue flags as well, that made the race a bit more interesting than I wanted.

“ But, apart from a few laps trying to get through the blue flags, I felt pretty much in control and could increase my pace when I needed to. 

“So, yeah, it was a really strong race and a strong weekend. 

“I think we did a really good job of managing everything in that race: sticking to our plan on strategy, not getting distracted by the three-stop, really good pit stops. 

“Yeah, I think we just did a good job all around.”

On Lap 55, however, margins became irrelevant when a late-race Safety Car arrived after Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes suffered a power unit failure — specifically a loss of oil pressure — on the run into Turn 10. 

Billowing smoke as it sat in the gravel trap, the Italian was forced to abandon his car as the marshals worked to clear it from the active circuit before a restart with six laps remaining led to one of the most controversial moments of the season between Verstappen and George Russell.

Putting his head down, Piastri remained unaffected through the chaos when he launched through a commanding restart, guiding himself and Norris to a dominant 1-2 finish in Spain.

“My restart was okay from a time point of view,” the #81 explained. 

“I’m not sure my rear tyres were very happy — I think I was wheel-spinning in sixth gear — so not the cleanest of restarts, but it was good enough. 

“And then just getting used to how much grip there was on low fuel again, it was like being back in qualifying. 

“So that was a bit of an adjustment, but no, very well managed.”

The Australian took the chequered flag 2.5 seconds ahead of Norris in second, while the closest competitor to the McLaren duo, Charles Leclerc, tracked eight seconds behind in the final podium position.

The win in Barcelona marks Piastri’s fifth of the season, his seventh career victory and his eighth consecutive podium finish — the Australian being one of three McLaren drivers to achieve that feat alongside Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton. 

“It’s definitely up there,” Piastri said. 

“I don’t know if it’s the best [weekend in my career], but certainly it’s been a strong one. 

“You know, it’s pretty hard to complain with the results we’ve had this weekend, and I think more so than that, just the effort that’s gone in, and analysing some of the things from last week that we could have done better—I think we turned it around very nicely and got back to the form we wanted to be on. 

“And, yeah, that’s what I’m very satisfied with this weekend. Definitely one of the strongest.”

As a result, Piastri’s championship lead over his teammates increased to 10 points, while Max Verstappen’s meltdown in the dying stages cost his already tough championship hopes greatly.

Playing into McLaren’s favour, Verstappen is also at risk of receiving a one-race ban after purposely making contact with Russell at Turn 5, contributing three penalty points to his now total of 11.

If the Dutchman is to receive one more penalty point within the next two race weekends, he will be forced onto the sidelines for one Grand Prix, relieving McLaren of its closest competitor.

After a tiring triple-header taking the sport from Imola to Monaco, and to Barcelona for one final time, the grid is now able to enjoy one week of rest before flying to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix — a race where Piastri has previously finished in P5 and P11.

The Canadian Grand Prix will run across June 13-15 at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

Image: McLaren

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