‘Hardest race ever’: Piastri persists for best weekend yet
Monday, 9 October 2023
Oscar Piastri's season just gets better, a maiden Formula 1® Sprint race pole and victory on Saturday preceding a career-best second-place finish on a sweltering Sunday in Qatar.
Oscar Piastri keeps raising the bar, the Australian backing up his best Formula 1® weekend in Japan with an even better showing in Qatar, the McLaren driver finishing second in Sunday’s Grand Prix at Lusail after winning the Sprint 24 hours earlier.
Piastri finished just 4.833secs behind newly-crowned world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) at Lusail in an energy-sapping race that, in effect, became a flat-out sprint between mandatory tyre stops, concerns over the durability of Pirelli’s tyres on the Qatar circuit’s ‘pyramid’ kerbs mandating that no tyre set could be run for more than 18 laps across the 57-lap Grand Prix.
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A visibly spent Piastri – who took to laying down in the drivers’ cooldown room before taking to the podium – called Qatar his toughest test yet, which made second place even more rewarding.
“That’s probably the hardest race I’ve ever done in my life,” he said after beating teammate Lando Norris, a position flip from McLaren’s double-podium last time out in Japan.
“Very, very satisfied – that was the most we could have done. A tough race out there, and second and third for the team is an amazing result. It’s been an amazing weekend in general, so very happy.
“From quite early on in the year we knew Suzuka and here would probably be kind to us. Today has been good and we’ve been able to show the pace of the car, so encouraging to finish within five seconds of Max … that’s pretty unbelievable from the start of the season.”
Piastri, starting sixth, had Sunday’s race come to him almost immediately in Qatar after Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell clashed at the first corner, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso taking avoiding action and creating a space for Piastri to sail through into second place.
“Turn 1 was nice, that was definitely in the game plan before the race – it could not have gone any better,” he joked of the Mercedes clash that saw him leap instantly into podium contention.
“It was so hot, and also with the three (pit) stops it was basically flat-out, so it was 57 qualifying laps … which I definitely feel like I’ve done. Really good race, and happy that all the tyres stayed together – that was good, obviously. Happy with another trophy, too.”
Piastri’s best Sunday result yet came after a stellar Saturday, where he qualified on pole and won the Sprint over 17 laps. While it doesn’t count as an F1® victory in the record books and the top step of the podium will have to wait, it was no less enjoyable after not being particularly straightforward, having to repass Russell on lap 11 of 17 after relinquishing the lead three laps in.
“It’s a bit of a weird feeling because it’s not a race … it does feel a little bit strange,” he said after finishing first.
“But no, very happy … I felt as a race, more than the result, I was really happy with how I managed things. The pace was reasonable and in a race where you had to manage a lot the tyres, cars on other compounds, I think we did a really good job. A first Sprint win sounds pretty cool.”
It’s been a quite the six-race run for Piastri since Belgium, where he qualified on the front row for a Sprint for the first time and finished second in the short-form race at Spa for his first F1 top-three result. Since then he’s recorded his first fastest lap (Italy), his first Grand Prix front-row start and maiden podium (Japan), and now a maiden Sprint race win and best race result to date in Qatar.
His efforts were again lauded by the sport’s fans, Piastri earning Driver of the Day honours for a second straight race with 27 per cent of the vote.
With McLaren earning 47 points in Qatar – more than any other team – the British squad narrowed its gap to Aston Martin for fourth place in the constructors’ championship to just 11 points, after Alonso could only manage sixth on Sunday and Lance Stroll failed to score for the fifth weekend in succession.
Oscar's Qatar Grand Prix by the numbers
- Sprint (19 laps): Started 1st, finished 1st
- Race (57 laps): Started 6th, finished 2nd
- Fastest lap: 1min 24.921secs (3rd), lap 48
- Points this event: 26
- Points this season: 83 (9th in world championship)
