“To get those points on the board with the car that we have at the moment I think is really important.”
Here’s how Piastri’s race unfolded.
The start
Piastri started 16th on the grid afterfailing to progress beyond the first stage of qualifying. He was on medium tyres and said he made “good” moves up the track. He pinched one spot early,and moved up to 14th when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc spun out of the race,and then into 13th when Alpine’s Esteban Ocon pitted.
Lap 9
A red flag – the first of the race – was called after gravel from the crash between Lance Stroll and Alex Albon was pushed on to the track on lap 9. By then,Piastri was in 10th position,just one spot behind teammate Lando Norris. Like the majority of the drivers on the grid,Piastri used the early return to the pits to his advantage,swapping to hard tyres. As the action resumed,Piastri was overtaken by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz,who pushed forward into sixth position.
Lap 15
Tsunoda bumped Piastri as he overtook him – though his car was unscathed. “It was a bit of a squeeze,but no harm done. We both live to see another day,” Piastri said later. The Australian dropped back into 10th position when Red Bull’s Sergio Perez,who started in 20th position after a horror qualifying session,overtook Piastri on turn nine from the outside.
Lap 26
Piastri slipped back to 12th,overtaken by Alpine’s Esetban Ocon,whose straight-line speed was too quick for the Australian. From there,Piastri was stuck behind Tsunoda. “I just couldn’t really find a way past,” he said.
Lap 30
When the hometown hero overtook Tsunoda the Melbourne crowd was in raptures. “Once I got past him,the pace seemed to be pretty good,” Piastri said. Tsunoda dropped off,and by lap 42 Piastri was running his own race in position 11 – with a 7.5-second gap ahead and behind him. At this point Verstappen was eight seconds clear at the front.
Lap 46
Piastri sped to his fastest time around the track,clocking a time of 1:21.335.
Lap 56
The safety car came out after Kevin Magnussen lost a tyre,sending debris onto the track. Piastri went into the pit to fight for a spot in the top 10,swapping out his hard tyres for soft. Moments after he left the track,though,a second red flag was called,and the rest of the drivers were brought back into the pit.
All 16 remaining cars restarted on soft tyres,in what was effectively a 10.5-kilometre sprint race.
Piastri resumed in 11th,but soon after another red flag halted the race to clean up another mess – caused by Sainz’s collision with Fernando Alonso,in third.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also lost control,while Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Nyck de Vries (Alpha Tauri),were wiped out at turn three.
The finish
Stewards determined the final lap of the race would be resumed in the same order the cars had lined up on the grid for the previous restart,with the final lap of the race completed behind the safety car.
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The dramatic finish meant Piastri crossed in ninth from the rolling start,but was promoted to eighth after Ferrari’s Sainz was handed a five-second penalty for his role in the crash on the penultimate lap.
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