Oscar Piastri wins at Miami for 3rd straight F1 victory, 4th
Oscar Piastri wins at Miami for 3rd straight F1 victory, 4th win of season for championship leader
Oscar Piastri maintained his advantage in the F1 championship fight by winning at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday for his fourth win through six races this season
MIAMI GARDENS
(FLORIDA), MAY 5 (AP) — The first time Oscar Piastri arrived at the Miami
Grand Prix as a Formula 1 driver he was in the slowest car in the field and
only narrowly avoided finishing last.
Fast-forward two years and Piastri and McLaren Racing
have come full circle.
Piastri maintained his advantage in the F1 championship
fight by winning at Miami on Sunday for his fourth win through six races this
season. Piastri has won three consecutive F1 races for McLaren Racing, where he
and teammate Lando Norris are trying to dethrone four-time defending champion
Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
McLaren has won Miami the last two years, with Norris on
top last season for his first career F1 victory.
"It's just incredible, the hard work that's gone
in," Piastri said of McLaren.
"I remember two years ago here in Miami, we were
genuinely the slowest team. I think we got lapped twice and to now have won the
Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result of the hard
work of every single person."
Piastri is the first McLaren driver to win three
consecutive F1 races in 28 years; Mika Hakkinen did it with a win in the 1997
season finale and then victories in the first two races of 1998.
He widened his lead over Norris in the driver standings
to 16 points, while Verstappen trails Piastri by 32 points.
Norris' win at Miami last season snapped Verstappen's
two-year winning streak at the course surrounding Hard Rock Stadium. Norris
also won the sprint race on Saturday — Piastri dominated but a late safety car
cost him the victory — but Verstappen won the pole in qualifying.
Verstappen, who announced the birth of his first child
Friday morning, has been determined to disprove the myth that fatherhood would
make him a more conservative driver. It was evident as he darted away at the
start and then aggressively held off Norris' challenge for the lead.
The Red Bull and McLaren were side-by-side and Norris was
trying to edge ahead of the Dutchman, but he ran off track and lost four spots.
Norris said Verstappen forced him off track and there was nothing he could do
but try to avoid running into a wall — but F1 took no action against
Verstappen.
"What can I say? If I don't go for it, people
complain. If I go for it, people complain," Norris said. "You can't
win. But it really just how it is with Max — it's crash or their pass."
Verstappen was unapologetic after fading to fourth and
insisted he raced within the rules.
“I mean, I had nothing to lose, so I also wanted to have
a bit of fun out there,” Verstappen said, adding McLaren's strong start to the
season is “not frustrating at all.”
“We are here to win and today we were miles off that, so
it doesn't really matter,” Verstappen said.
Norris recovered from the early incident and picked his
way back toward the front, but not before Piastri took control away from
Verstappen on the 14th of 57 laps. McLaren has decided it will allow Piastri
and Norris to race each other cleanly without team orders, and Norris was
cleared to challenge his Australian teammate for the victory.
In the waning laps, Norris was able to close the gap but
could never catch Piastri and settled for second in a 1-2 finish for McLaren.
The two held a nearly 40-second advantage over George Russell of Mercedes, who
finished third.
Alex Albon of Williams was fifth, Kimi Antonelli of
Mercedes was sixth and Charles Leclerc was seventh after Ferrari ordered Lewis
Hamilton to give his teammate the position in the closing laps. Hamilton was
eighth.
Carlos Sainz Jr. was ninth for Williams and Yuki Tsunoda
was 10th for Red Bull.
Doohan in doubt
Jack Doohan ran into another car on the opening lap and
then crashed on the second lap — a showing that won't quiet chatter the rookie
is on the verge of being replaced at Alpine by Franco Colapinto.
There have been media reports in Argentina that Colapinto
will replace Doohan at F1's next race, later this month in Italy. It was
dismissed at the start of the Miami weekend by Alpine team principal Oliver
Oakes, who indicated “as it is today” the Australian would still be in the seat
at Imola.
“I think it was a sponsor from Argentina off-camera
giving his view on Franco, when he's going to be in the car. I'm sure there's a
lot of people in Argentina who'd like him in the car this Sunday,” Oakes said
about the speculation. “We've been pretty open as a team that that's just
noise. Jack needs to continue doing a good job. But it's natural that there's
always speculation there.
“As it is today, Jack is our driver along with Pierre
(Gasly),” he continued. “We've been pretty clear on that. We always evaluate,
but today that is the case.”
Doohan, who didn't complete two laps Sunday and finished
last, has yet to score a point this season through six races. His best finish
was 13th at the Chinese Grand Prix.
