For the first time this season, a penalty played a key role in deciding a race win as Piastri went top of the standings with his victory.
Piastri’s two earlier wins this season had been dominant drives from pole position. This time he had to get past four-time champion Max Verstappen.
Verstappen started on pole but went off the track when battling for the lead with Piastri at the very first corner. He stayed in front but got a five-second penalty. Piastri argued he had got in front of Verstappen on the inside of the corner and deserved the place.
“Once I got on the inside, I wasn’t coming out of turn one in second,” Piastri said.
“I tried my best. Obviously the stewards had to get involved. I thought I was plenty far enough up and that’s what won me the race.”
Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari and Piastri’s McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, finished fourth thanks to a smart strategy and overtaking. Norris had started 10th following a crash in qualifying.
It was the second win in a row for Piastri, who took the victory in Bahrain last week and has three wins from five races this year. He’d only won two before this season.
Piastri leads the standings by 10 points from Norris, with Verstappen two points further back in third.
Piastri was three points behind Norris going into Sunday’s race, partly because of a costly spin at his home race in Australia, the first GP of the season.
He becomes the first Australian to lead the F1 standings since Mark Webber — who is now Piastri’s manager — in 2010 as a Red Bull driver. No Australian has won the title since Alan Jones in 1980.
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