McLaren Triumphs with 1-2 Finish
McLaren secured a dominant 1-2 finish, but it wasn't without controversy. Oscar Piastri, the young Australian driver, secured his maiden Grand Prix victory, following his Sprint race win in Qatar last year. However, the win came after a tense battle with teammate Lando Norris.
Norris initially held the lead but benefitted from an undercut pit strategy during the second round of stops. Despite race engineer instructions to relinquish the lead to Piastri, Norris delayed his move until just three laps remained. This internal team struggle leaves questions about McLaren's future internal battles.
Hamilton Earns Podium Despite Verstappen Contact
Lewis Hamilton secured a hard-fought third place after a fierce battle with Max Verstappen. The two collided at Turn 1, with Hamilton emerging unscathed and holding onto the podium position.
Verstappen Frustrated by Strategy and Incident
Max Verstappen's race was plagued by a poor strategy call. Forced to yield a position to Norris after a first-corner off-track overtake, Verstappen struggled throughout the race. A late attempt to overtake Hamilton resulted in contact under investigation (settled without penalty for either driver), dropping him back to fifth place.
Other Standings Updates
- Carlos Sainz finished sixth for Ferrari.
- Sergio Perez managed a good recovery drive from 16th on the grid to finish seventh.
- George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda secured eighth and ninth positions for Mercedes and RB (AlphaTauri) respectively.
- Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten points scorers for Aston Martin.
Updated Driver Standings
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) - 265 points
- Lando Norris (McLaren) - 189 points
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 162 points
- Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) - 154 points
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 149 points
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 125 points
- Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing) - 124 points
- George Russell (Mercedes) - 116 points
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) - 45 points
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) - 24 points
- Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) - 22 points
- Yuki Tsunoda (RB) - 22 points
- Daniel Ricciardo (RB) - 11 points
- Oliver Bearman (Ferrari) - 6 points
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine) - 6 points
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas) - 5 points
- Alexander Albon (Williams) - 4 points
- Esteban Ocon (Alpine) - 3 points
- Zhou Guanyu (Kick Sauber) - 0 points
- Logan Sargeant (Williams) - 0 points
- Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber) - 0 points
Driver Standings Evolution
Hamilton moved up 2 places to 6th in the championship, passing Perez and Russell in 7th and 8th respectively.
Norris takes back 8 points from Verstappen and remains in the championship race even though McLaren indirectly offers Verstappen 7 points.