by Ben Ayuko
{image by Formula1}
Oscar Piastri secured his 1st ever win in Formula 1 after some hullabaloo involving his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris.
It proved to be a very volatile atmosphere as both the McLaren and the Red Bull Racing team engineers had to rein in their respective drivers and ensure they brought the car home in one piece.
The action began as soon as the 1st corner as both Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen launched off the line and ran up alongside pole sitter Lando Norris right into the right hander. They were lined up 3 abreast going into the corner but for Oscar, having the advantage of the inside line meant that he would emerge out of the corner in the lead. Verstappen took 2nd place by going around the outside of Norris but was adjudged to have gained an advantage by going off the track and therefore he had to give the place back to the Mclaren driver, despite his protestations to the team.
This incident wound up winding him up and for the rest of the race he was almost on his own personal charge as though looking to prove something.
The real fireworks flew after the 2nd round of pitstops on lap 50.
The McLaren team decide to pit Norris ahead of teammate Oscar who was leading the race. Norris came back out with fresh tyres and as a result, managed to overtake his teammate after he made his own pitstop in the following lap. This was a bad look.
McLaren issued team orders to Norris telling him to switch positions back with Oscar. Norris was reluctant to do this. After all, he was sat in 2nd place in the overall driver championships standings, and it would have served him best to take advantage of the situation.
This debate went on, over the very public team radio, for over 10 laps as Norris built his lead over Oscar. As heartbreaking as it would be for Oscar to lose the chance to win his first race in this manner, questions like “Well why didn’t you pit him first?” or “Tell him to catch up…” would prove difficult to argue against Norris for his convictions.
Verstappen was already not enjoying his best race and his 2nd pitstop left him with an even bigger mountain to climb should he be looking to win the race, a point he made sure to put forward with some rather colourful language on the team radio. His frustrations at being stuck behind Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) in 4th place finally boiled over as he elected to send his car from deep and divebomb Hamilton at the first corner. He overshot it. He made contact with Hamilton. His car was sent flying into the air and, miraculously, avoided taking any damage. He did lose a position to Charles Leclerc though.
Alas, with 3 laps to go, Norris yielded, allowing Oscar to claim first place back and take his race victory. Norris in a disgruntled 2nd place, Hamilton and Leclerc in rather fortunate 3rd and 4th respectively as Verstappen finished in 5th.
Oscar became the 7th different driver to win a race in 2024.