While Lando Norris fought for victory at the front of the field, Oscar Piastri endured a much more difficult afternoon at Madrid’s first Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Starting seventh, the Australian’s problems began almost immediately when he made contact with George Russell twice during a busy opening lap. The incidents damaged Piastri’s front wing and left him struggling with the car for the remainder of the race. But there was also some frustration when McLaren elected not to replace the damaged wing during his first pit stop.
“Are you gonna fix my front wing or not?” Piastri asked over team radio.
His engineer explained that the team could make a smaller adjustment without losing the additional time required to replace the wing, prompting Piastri to respond: “Okay, yes, but tell me if you’re going to fix it next time.”
From there, it became a difficult afternoon of trying to recover lost ground. Piastri’s final pit stop came with 15 laps remaining, but the timing dropped him straight into heavy traffic. Arvid Lindblad, Franco Colapinto, and Gabriel Bortoleto all made their way past, further complicating his efforts to climb back through the field.
With overtaking proving difficult around the new Madring circuit, there was little Piastri could do to recover. He eventually crossed the line eighth, more than a minute and a half behind race winner Kimi Antonelli.
It was a disappointing result for Piastri, particularly on a weekend where the other McLaren showed enough pace to finish on the podium.
Piastri leaves Madrid with just four points after a weekend where very little seemed to go his way. After finishing sixth at Zandvoort and now eighth in Madrid, the Australian will be hoping for a much cleaner weekend next time out.
