Some 220,000 race fans bore witness to Oscar Piastri’s lights to flag victory in the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, with the 23-year-old McLaren driver turning his luck around after his heartbreaking 9th place finish in Melbourne one week ago. Piastri finished ahead of his McLaren teammate Lando Norris and George Russell’s Mercedes, bringing the papaya team their 50th 1-2 finish in six illustrious decades
The boy from Brighton was strong all weekend long in Shanghai, claiming second in the Sprint Race on Saturday and his maiden Grand Prix pole not long after, becoming the first Aussie driver to do so since Daniel Ricciardo in 2018’s Mexican Grand Prix.
Despite claiming the third Grand Prix win of his career, the characteristically calm Piastri kept a level head during his post-race interview, saying to Liberty Media that it was his “least emotional win but the most satisfying.” With McLaren having back-to-back victories in the last two races, Piastri is primed and ready for a championship battle this season, picking up right where his manager, Mark Webber, left off in 2013.
Piastri ran a nearly faultless race around the Shanghai International Circuit, with a poor race start and pitbox error the only blemishes in an otherwise faultless 56 laps.
Never pushing any harder than he needed to, he drove well beyond his three years in the sport.
Wheelspin off the line left Piastri no other choice but to fend off the hard charging George Russell into turn 1. But there was no animosity between the championship hopefuls after the race, with Russell comparing Piastri’s defensive maneuver to Michael Schumacher’s own on Rubens Barrichello in the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The McLaren’s ran 1-2 for the entire race, with no more than two seconds separating them the entire time. Tire wear was the biggest concern all weekend long, with the newly resurfaced tarmac increasing the average speed of the car and wearing them down far quicker. Ducking into the pits for a tire change after 13 laps on his mediums, Piastri went a little too deep into his pitbox, costing him precious milliseconds during his pit cycle. But it wasn’t worth a second thought, with the undercut on Lando Norris proving successful. Staying out for one more lap, Norris rejoined behind the Mercedes of George Russell. While it looked like Norris was steadily catching our boy out front after passing Russell, it was nothing more than a red herring. Having nursed his tires to perfection, Piastri picked up the pace after Norris’ false flag warning, putting a comfortable gap between him and his teammate. That lead would grow to 10 seconds by the end of the race.
Piastri’s no frills approach driving paid off in the long run, with his hard tires looking a lot better than Norris’ at the midpoint of the race. With the one-stop race strategy being the way to go this time out in China, drivers would have to take extra good care of their tires.
Norris’s race came under threat during its dying stages after his brakes malfunctioned, putting him under threat from Russell behind. Norris barely held on, with just 1.3 seconds separating the two at race’s end.
Piastri entered the grand prix weekend with an air of optimism, touching on his otherwise competitive performance last time out in Melbourne. While his race did end in a heartbreaking 9th place finish, the Australian driver says he has confidence in both himself and his MCL39, hoping to attack the other 23 races with the same intensity.
The relatively inexperienced driver got the better of Lando Norris all weekend long, taking bragging rights after his podium finish in the sprint on Saturday, record-setting pole lap, and his dominant victory on Sunday. F1 fans old and new are in for one hell of a title fight this season, with McLaren serving up yet another inter-team battle.
