Oscar Piastri reflected on a masterful winning performance at the Miami Grand Prix, admitting that staying out of trouble in the opening few corners contributed to his victory.
The Australian racer had his work cut out after a disappointing qualifying result on Saturday. Starting in fourth behind Championship rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, it initially appeared unlikely that the McLaren driver would work his way up the field and win.
But in the end it was a smooth-sailing victory for Piastri. Norris fell down to sixth after an opening lap tussle with Verstappen, and Antonelli was easy pickings for the McLaren driver on lap four.
Piastri snatched the lead away from Verstappen on the 14th lap, and dominated proceedings from that point onwards, leading home a McLaren one-two with George Russell of Mercedes a further 30 seconds behind in third.
Speaking after the Grand Prix around the Miami International Autodrome, Piastri admitted that the chaos ahead of him on the first lap played a part in his sixth career win in Formula 1.
He said: "Yesterday was a tricky day. Qualifying was one of my trickiest sessions of the year so to come away and win is an impressive result.
"A bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1 which helped me a bit. I was aware enough to avoid Max coming through in Turn 1.
"From that point onwards I knew I had a good pace advantage and clearly the car was unbelievable," added Piastri.
It wasn't completely perfect for the Australian driver however, as he claimed to struggle for pace after pitting for hard tyres.
He continued: "The first stint was really strong. The hard stint, I was struggling a bit, so it was a good thing I built that gap in the first stint.
"Towards the end I started to get things a bit more under control, so there's still definitely some things to work on. Very happy with the win, very happy with the points.
"Constantly got to keep learning. Very happy to leave Miami on top," Piastri exclaimed.
The 24-year-old concluded by heaping praise on his team, in turning around their fortunes in the span of just a couple of years.
Piastri stated: "It's incredible the hard work from the team. Two years ago at Miami we were the slowest team. I think we were lapped twice.
"Now to have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result."
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