![]() |
McLaren's Oscar Piastri took his third win of the year and with it the world championship lead at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Piastri benefited from a penalty for Red Bull's Max Verstappen to take control of the race and score his second win in a week. Verstappen was given a five-second penalty for illegally keeping the lead from Piastri by going off the track at the first corner but had more than enough pace to keep second place. McLaren's Lando Norris recovered from 10th place on the grid after his crash in qualifying to finish fourth behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Norris, on an off-set tyre strategy, was closing in on Leclerc as the race reached its closing stages but his medium tyres lost their edge of pace and the Ferrari driver was able to hold him back. Piastri's third win in five races so far this season puts the Australian 10 points clear of Norris in the championship, with Verstappen just two points further adrift. |
|
McLaren's Oscar Piastri won for the fourth time in six races this year as he beat team-mate Lando Norris in an action-packed Miami Grand Prix.
Both McLaren drivers fought intense battles with early leader Max Verstappen's Red Bull as they moved up to the front of the field. Piastri, who started fourth, drove a race of clinical excellence to pass both Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and then Verstappen to assume the lead, before managing his gap to his pursuers to the end. Norris, who dropped back to sixth on the first lap after running wide while battling for the lead with Verstappen, was also decisive in making up for his earlier misfortune. Norris ate into Piastri's lead through the second half of the race but the Australian kept him at arm's length. Mercedes' George Russell benefited from one of three virtual safety-car periods to vault ahead of Verstappen and take the final podium place, similarly keeping the Dutchman at bay over the closing laps. And there was tension at Ferrari as the team first rejected and then accepted Lewis Hamilton's request to be allowed past team-mate Charles Leclerc as they raced on divergent tyre strategies. Hamilton was let past to try to challenge Antonelli's Mercedes ahead of him, but failed to catch the Italian, or pull significantly ahead of Leclerc. |
|
Great race and no controversy. It's good to see Red Bull nudged off the top and having a real challenge this season.
|
I'd like to see Hmilton bow out gracefully, he's had his day.
|
But he had to drive for Ferrari just to say so.
|
Yeah probably.
|
Red Bull's Max Verstappen took a dominant victory in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix founded on an audacious overtaking move on the first lap.
The four-time champion passed pole-sitter Oscar Piastri's McLaren around the outside of the first chicane after the start and controlled the race from there. A late safety car closed the field up and put the McLarens of Piastri and Lando Norris on Verstappen's tail. But a consummate restart from Verstappen allowed him to break free while Norris, on much fresher tyres than Piastri, fought for three laps before finally passing the Australian to take second. The result, Verstappen's second win of the season, reduces Piastri's championship lead over Norris to 13 points from 16, and puts the Dutchman nine behind the Briton. Lewis Hamilton benefited from an offset strategy, starting on the hard tyre, and the two safety cars to fight up from 12th on the grid to finish fourth for Ferrari, passing his team-mate Charles Leclerc in the hectic closing laps thanks to much fresher tyres. |
|
Lando Norris said his victory in the Monaco Grand Prix was an "incredible" feeling, but that he was "more emotional" about taking pole position the day before.
Norris drove a perfectly controlled race to win Monaco from the front, while the new rule mandating drivers use three sets of tyres introduced extra jeopardy but made no difference to the result. But, for Norris, the fact that he had been able to end a difficult run of qualifying results, and perhaps begin to turn a corner in the struggles he has been having with the McLaren this year, had potentially deeper meaning. Norris' pole in Monaco was his second of the year and his first since he won the season-opening race in Australia from the front of the grid. In the meantime, team-mate Oscar Piastri had taken three poles and four wins and seemed to be establishing himself as the championship favourite. But Norris' pole-then-win in Monaco, combined with Piastri's struggles to third in both qualifying and race, cuts the Australian's lead to just three points, and also increases Norris' advantage over Red Bull's Max Verstappen, fourth in Monaco, to 22 points. |
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:36 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1995- 2025 Subsim®
"Subsim" is a registered trademark, all rights reserved.