It’s another milestone on our journey! McLaren boss talks Qatar sprint and praises Piastri

Oscar Piastri has clearly had the biggest success of his F1 career so far. The Australian driver for McLaren won Saturday’s sprint race in Qatar to claim his first victory in the queen of motorsport. The team boss Andrea Stella was understandably very positive about his performance.

Piastri started Saturday’s sprint from first place, having outperformed not only his teammate Lando Norris or Max Verstappen in the Shootout, but of course all the other drivers as well.

Going into the sprint, McLaren had chosen the same strategy for both drivers, which was to go into this 100km race on a medium set of tyres.

However, on the rough tarmac, the drivers, who like Piastri had fitted the medium specification, were very slippery in the opening laps. The young Australian was able to defend his first position, but was overtaken by George Russell after a few moments.

However, he eventually began to stagnate on the softest specification of tyres, whereupon a later performance drop in the tyres marked in red could be interpreted as crazy. Piastri then regained the lead and did not relinquish his top spot despite yellow flags, safety cars and other circumstances.

In fact, he defended his first position ahead of Verstappen, whom he managed to maintain a roughly two-second lead over in the last two laps.

Piastri thus won convincingly and recorded his biggest success in F1 so far. It should be added, he won in his rookie season. Norris is still waiting for his first win.

Another milestone in our journey…

“Speaking of Oscar, he won in dominant fashion. He was first in the shootout and strong in the race. He had a strong pace and matched Verstappen in the final laps,” the McLaren boss, quoted by Racing News 365, praised his driver.

“It was a well-deserved victory. After his first podium, he adds another piece to his collection of achievements. We’re happy for Oscar and it’s definitely a positive emotion for the team,” Stella added.

He concluded by saying that this is another milestone for McLaren in the team’s journey. After all, by scoring 14 points, they are once again close to Aston Martin, who currently hold fourth place in the Constructors’ Cup.

Source: F1, Racing News 365