Piastri has ‘no complaints’ about McLaren campaign after Barcelona triumph

Oscar Piastri has no complaints about the way McLaren’s season has gone, having boosted his Formula One title hopes by winning the Spanish Grand Prix.

But further up the grid, it was smooth sailing for McLaren as they completed their third one-two of the season.

Piastri earned his fifth win of the campaign from pole and now sits 10 points clear of team-mate Lando Norris, who was a comfortable second, in the drivers’ championship standings.

“We executed everything we needed to when it counted and that’s all we could ask for.

“The team gave me a great car once again, it’s a lot of fun winning races at the moment. I’ve been enjoying it and I hope the team are too.”

Piastri’s victory was the 50th by Australian drivers in F1, with Australia the seventh nation to reach that number of victories in the sport.

He has also scored points at each of his last 35 races, with only Lewis Hamilton (48 from Silverstone 2018 to Bahrain 2020) and Verstappen (43 from Emilia-Romagna 2022 to Australia 2024) enjoying longer streaks in the sport’s history.

Piastri was surprised to see Verstappen – who had threatened to challenge for top spot – pit for a third time and finish on unfavoured hard tyres, having pulled 49 points clear of the reigning champion in the standings.

“It was a bit of a surprise to see Max Verstappen try a three-stop and it nearly worked for him, but it was a great weekend overall,” he added.

“The overall pace was really good and we could turn it on when we needed to. I’m just very proud of the work we’ve done this weekend.

“It wasn’t the best first practice and then we got our stuff together. It’s a nice way to bounce back from Monaco, it’s been a superb weekend.”

In his own post-race interview, Norris said: “Oscar drove a very good race today. I didn’t quite have the pace to match him. We gave it our best shot.

“It’s a long race, anything could have happened at the end of the race. We both got pretty sideways with the safety car restart. It was a good, fun race and for us as a team to finish one-two is even better.”