While his Miami Grand Prix ended outside the points zone, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri believed that there were “definitely a lot of positives” to take away from his eventful afternoon of racing.
Piastri stormed off the grid from sixth to gain three positions on the opening lap, eventually moving up to second on lap 4, a position he held for most of his opening stint.
Unfortunately, an ill-timed Safety Car that materialized just after his switch from the medium to the hard compound disrupted the McLaren charger’s strategy.
The neutralization proved to be a boon however for his teammate Lando Norris who had not yet pitted, the Briton capitalizing on the event to gain a significant advantage at the head of the field.
Falling to fourth, Piastri soon found himself locked in a tight battle with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. The Aussie managed to fend off his rival on two occasions inti Turn 11, but on lap 39 the Spaniard forced the issue into Turn 17.
The pair made contact which damaged Piastri’s front wing and forced the McLaren driver into a ruinous pitstop that saw him tumble down the order. Sainz meantime crossed the checkered flag fourth only to be hit with a 5-second penalty for his maneuver that demoted the Scuderia charger to P5.
Despite the setback, Piastri managed to set the fastest lap during his late-race charge, concluding his afternoon 13th while Norris went on to secure a well-deserved victory.
It is important to note that Piastri did not have the full upgrade package available to Norris in Miami, which is estimated to have created a performance gap of approximately two-tenths of a second per lap.
“Definitely a lot of positives to come from today,” Piastri commented after the race. “For both of us, the car was really strong.
“For Lando, to win the race on pace and to pull away from Max [Verstappen] after the Safety Car, I think that's a very, very encouraging sign.
“So very happy for him and for the whole team. I think we deserve it. Our trajectory in the last 12 months has been towards this moment.
“Even with the car that I had, I think we were very strong as well. Excited for Imola.”
Indeed, Piastri’s MCL38 was not equipped with the full upgrade package implemented on Norris’ car in Miami.
But even with his lower-spec car, the 23-year-old he was able to maintain close proximity to Max Verstappen in the first part of the race.
“I was happy with the start,” Piastri said. “The fact that I could get past Leclerc as well was unexpected coming into the race.
“From that point, I was quite happy and was reasonably comfortable with him behind me there, just the timing of the Safety Car wasn't ideal.”
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