Piastri surprised by Red Bull's strategy threat

Oscar Piastri felt he delivered one of his strongest weekends for McLaren in winning the Spanish Grand Prix, but admits he was surprised by the threat Red Bull offered through Max Verstappen’s strategy.

Verstappen did not have the pace to match the McLarens but was running an aggressive three-stop race that allowed him to push harder on his tires compared to the McLarens following a more conventional two-stop, and it kept the Red Bull in range for the majority of the grand prix. Ultimately Piastri – who took pole by over 0.2s from Lando Norris – had too much pace and led home a one-two, extending his championship lead to 10 points.

“It felt mostly under control,” Piastri said. “I think I wasn't really expecting Max to try a three-stop race, and I wasn't really expecting it to work… Well, almost work as well as it did either. So there was a bit going on at that point definitely, and just with all the traffic and the blue flags as well, that made the race a bit more interesting than I wanted.

“But, apart from a few laps trying to get through the blue flags, I felt pretty much in control and could increase my pace when I needed to. So, it was a really strong race and a strong weekend. I think we did a really good job of managing everything in that race: sticking to our plan on strategy, not getting distracted by the three-stop, really good pit stops. I think we just did a good job all around.

“It's definitely up there [as one of my best weekends]. I don't know if it's the best one, but certainly it's been a strong one. It's pretty hard to complain with the results we've had this weekend.

“And I think more so than that, just the effort that's gone in, and analyzing some of the things from last week that we could have done better – I think we turned it around very nicely and got back to the form we wanted to be on. That's what I'm very satisfied with this weekend. Definitely one of the strongest.”

The main talking point after the race revolved around Verstappen’s incident with George Russell in the closing stages, and while all of the drivers looked surprised seeing it back in the cool-down room, Piastri was reserved in his judgements.

“In all honesty, I don’t fully get the context of what happened. It looked a bit strange. I thought he was giving the position back… So I don’t really get what happened there. I don’t know if it was a misunderstanding, whether he didn’t brake… I don’t really know.

“I think I need a bit more context on what happened, but obviously it was not exactly a small touch. I don’t have that much more, but it obviously didn’t look great.”