Oscar Piastri has rebounded from his Albert Park heartbreak in style, claiming his third career Formula One victory at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday evening.
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Piastri, who looked on track to claim a spot on the podium at his home race last week before spinning on lap 44, claimed the first pole of his career on Saturday in Shanghai.
It was the first time he out-qualified McLaren teammate Lando Norris since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last September, and in Sunday’s race he emphatically replied in the championship battle.
With the win, Piastri became the first Australian to win from pole since Daniel Ricciardo at Monaco in 2018.
“It’s been an incredible weekend from start to finish,” Piastri said after the race.
“The car’s been pretty mega the whole time. I think today was a bit of a surprise with how differently the tyres behaved.
“I’m just so proud of the whole weekend. This is what I feel like I deserved from last week. The team did a mega job with the one-two. I’m very happy.
“On the medium it was still a bit tricky but much better than yesterday, and then the hard was a much better tyre than everyone expected, or certainly than we expected.
“To go all the way to the end like that was a bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise.”
The first corner loomed as the biggest threat to Piastri’s lead and once the Australian cleared that, he found himself in a comfortable position.
Piastri and McLaren were able to control the race in the early stages, with Norris shortly behind in second, while Ferrari ran into early trouble after teammates Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton made contact.
It resulted in damage to the front wing of Leclerc, although strangely enough as the race progressed he proved to have the more pace of the two as Hamilton eventually swapped places with his teammate after being initially hesitant to do so.
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It was a dream start to the race for Piastri, while teammate Norris had to fight off George Russell after the Mercedes driver passed him on Lap 16 as he pulled of the undercut.
Norris was able to overcome that early setback as he made a nice move down the inside before Turn One on Lap 18 and, with the benefit of DRS, overtook Russell and regained his position.
It remained that way until the very end of Sunday’s race, with McLaren securing the one-two while Russell rounded out the podium with Max Verstappen in fourth and Leclerc in fifth.
Elsewhere, Jack Doohan finished the race in 15th position after copping a 10-second penalty for nudging Isack Hadjar off the track, with his fellow rookie accusing the Australian of “moving so late”.
After last week’s chaos in Melbourne, just one driver failed to finish with Fernando Alonso retiring after brake issues on the fourth lap of the race.
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