Piastri nearly saw Verstappen clinch the win: 'Didn't expect that'

18:33, 02 Jun

byNorberto Mujica

Oscar Piastri won his fifth race of the season in Spain, which might not have been the way everything panned out, since the Aussie saw Red Bull nearly nab the win right from under him.

Whereas the preferred strategy by most teams was the two-stopper, Red Bull chose to put Max Verstappen on a three-stop race, somethin that surprised Piastri as he said to media like GPblog.

"It felt mostly under control. I think I wasn't really expecting Max to try a three-stop race, and I wasn't really expecting it to work… Well, almost work as well as it did either."

Piastri saw McLaren have a mighty weekend in Barcelona

There were some challenges, the Aussie highlights, though. "So there was a bit going on at that point definitely, and just with all the traffic and the blue flags as well, that made the race a bit more interesting than I wanted."

But aside from the odd run-in with a backmarker, it was a striaghforward Grand Prix for Piastri.

"I felt pretty much in control and could increase my pace when I needed to. So, it was a really strong race and a strong weekend. I think we did a really good job of managing everything in that race: sticking to our plan on strategy, not getting distracted by the three-stop, really good pit stops. Yeah, I think we just did a good job all around."