‘Pretty special’: Oscar Piastri claims maiden podium at Japanese Grand Prix
Aussie rookie Oscar Piastri has claimed his maiden F1 podium, breaking through for a major milestone at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri has finished third at the Japanese Grand Prix, claiming his maiden podium in a major milestone in his F1 career.
Max Verstappen won for the 13th time this season to help Red Bull wrap up the constructors’ championship with six races remaining. He was nearly 20 seconds ahead of second place.
Verstappen told his team: “You have built a total rocket ship of a car, well done.”
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Lando Norris finished second as McLaren secured a rare double podium as the team rapidly closes in on Aston Martin in the battle for fourth in the constructors’ standings.
It’s Norris’ fourth podium finish of the season as McLaren’s late season resurgence continued.
Norris said as he crossed the line: “We’re coming, we’re coming for Red Bull”.
Piastri started on the front row of the grid but quickly found himself on the back foot when he got stuck behind Max Verstappen on the first corner.
Norris nearly took the lead as he swooped past Piastri off the start.
The Australian rookie briefly got ahead of Norris thanks to an early pit stop, and the Brit wasn’t too happy when Piastri didn’t let him past later in the race despite Norris clearly driving faster.
But Norris got past and it was all happy families at McLaren by the end of the race as Piastri held off challenges from Charles Leclerc and George Russell to pop the champagne corks for the first time in F1.
It’s the first time an Australian driver has been on an F1 podium since Daniel Ricciardo won the Italian Grand Prix in 2021.
The 22-year-old is the first rookie since Lance Stroll in 2017 to finish on the podium.
Piastri said: “It feels pretty special. I’ll remember it for a very long time, I can’t thank the team enough for giving me this opportunity.
“There’s not many people who get it and I’ve got it in my first season.
“It wasn’t my best race ever but it was enough to get a trophy at the end so I’m super happy.”
Japanese Grand Prix results
1) Max Verstappen
2) Lando Norris
3) Oscar Piastri
4) Charles Leclerc
5) Lewis Hamilton
6) Carlos Sainz
7) George Russell
8) Fernando Alonso
9) Esteban Ocon
10) Pierre Gasly
11) Liam Lawson
12) Yuki Tsunoda
13) Zhou Guanyu
14) Nico Hulkenberg
15) Kevin Magussen
DNF: Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant, Lance Stroll, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas
4.18pm/Lap 43 - Piastri’s trying to hold on for podium
Piastri has overtaken George Russell to move into third place, while the Mercedes driver’s bold one-stop race strategy didn’t quite pay off.
But with 10 laps to go, Piastri will need to hold off Charles Leclerc if the Ferrari manages to pass Russell into fourth.
3.52pm - Frustrated Norris overtakes Piastri
Lando Norris caught up to Oscar Piastri and overtook his younger teammate after a few frosty messages over team radio.
Frustrated Piastri didn’t let him through faster given Norris was driving faster, the Brit said “What’s he doing?”, telling McLaren: “The longer I spend behind now the harder you’re going to make the race for me”.
Norris wanted to get past Piastri quickly, to allow him to build a gap to George Russell, who is attempted a one-stop race in a bid to challenge for the podium.
3.50pm - DNFs galore
Halfway through the grand prix and it’s game over for five drivers.
Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant are out, in a nightmare result for Williams in particular.
Red Bull are bringing Perez back into the race so he can serve his time penalties.
3.31pm - Nightmare for Perez
Sergio Perez’s nightmare run has continued, being forced to retire his car on lap 15 after he collided with Lewis Hamilton early in the race and clattered into Kevin Magnussen in an unrealistic move.
It will only heap more pressure on Perez, who has struggled for form since winning two races early in the season.
3.30pm - Piastri gets advantage with ‘free pit stop’
Oscar Piastri’s hopes of a podium are back on after he pitted just as a Virtual Safety Car period was beginning.
It was a short Safety Car period but he saved some time compared to a normal pit stop and switched onto fresher hard tyres before Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
“That is a free pit stop,” David Croft said in commentary on Sky Sports.
“As it stands, brilliant news for McLaren fans and Oscar Piastri fans. That is brilliant news for Piastri.”
The early pit stop means Piastri is running second behind Verstappen and will aim to hold off his teammate Norris.
3.10pm - Lap 1 chaos
There’s already a Safety Car after Williams’ Alex Albon took a huge hit, while both Alfa Romeos were damaged. Albon has sustained floor damage, and he is in for a tough race.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was forced to retire from the race.
Meanwhile, Sergio Perez bumped into Lewis Hamilton as the seven-time world champion tried to sneak past the Red Bull off the start.
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— Formula 1 (@F1) September 24, 2023
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LIGHTS OUT AT SUZUKA!!!
Norris fights Verstappen into the first corner but it's the Dutchman who keeps the lead
And there's a scrabble for positions and contact behind #F1#JapaneseGPpic.twitter.com/oUD5eIWRqQ
3.05pm - Norris jumps Piastri at start
The race is underway and it was hardly an ideal start for Oscar Piastri, who got off the line well but was overtaken by teammate Lando Norris as the Aussie got wedged in behind Max Verstappen.
Norris very nearly took the lead but Verstappen just managed to stay in front on the first two corners. Piastri is in third.
1.45pm - Driver forced to start from pits
Logan Sargeant has been involved in late drama at the Japanese Grand Prix with Williams forced to start his car from pit lane.
Sargeant crashed heavily at the final turn during qualifying and his team has been forced to rebuild it from the ground up.
The late flurry of activity in the Williams garage has reportedly sparked a stewards investigation into a potential rule breach.
Curious situation developing with Williams summoned to stewards for starting to rebuild Logan Sargeant's car around a spare chassis under parc ferme conditions and building up new one to the point "this has to be considered as a third car available". Which is against the rules.
— Scott Mitchell-Malm (@SMitchellF1) September 24, 2023
1pm - Red Bull boss’ Ricciardo comment raises eyebrows
Christian Horner has seemingly lit a fire under all four drivers wanting to be Max Verstappen’s future teammate.
Horner has made some intriguing comments about the Red Bull game of musical chairs — showing Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda and Kiwi Liam Lawson all have a chance to win the second Red Bull seat for the 2025 season.
“We’ve got a long-term contract with Max,” Horner said in Japan.
“Checo is out of contract at the end of 2024. He’s in the hot seat at the moment and will obviously be keen to extend. We’ll see how Daniel does, we’ll see how Yuki does and in the background we’ll see what Liam’s capable of in the test and reserve role.”
Ricciardo is hoping to get back behind the wheel next month after breaking his hand at the Dutch Grand Prix.
12pm - Piastri far from happy
Oscar Piastri says he was slightly disappointed not to have nailed a perfect lap in qualifying.
“Well done everybody, thank you,” he said on team radio.
“The first lap was pretty good. The second one, nailed the tricky stuff and f***ed up the less tricky stuff. So thank you, good starting spot for tomorrow. Let’s have some fun!”
It’s the first time Piastri has out-qualified Norris this season and the surest indication yet that the 22-year-old rookie is the real deal.
Piastri joins Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Webber, Alan Jones and Jack Brabham as the only Australian drivers to start an F1 Grand Prix from the front row of the grid.
He also becomes the first rookie driver to put his car on the front row since Nico Hulkenberg in Brazil in 2010.
As he continues to notch up milestones in his debut season, Piastri will be hoping to claim his maiden podium finish in Japan on Sunday afternoon.
It comes just days after McLaren announced Piastri had signed a new deal to stay at the team until the end of the 2026 season.
The multi-year extension is a huge endorsement in the youngster who is seen as a future world champion.
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