Oscar Piastri lets his driving do the talking as he strikes back at Spanish Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri was brushed by Lando Norris after the Monaco Grand Prix. If he remained invisible at the Spanish GP, it was only because he was so far ahead that Norris couldn’t see him.

McLaren's Australian driver Oscar Piastri celebrates on the podium after winning the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix. Picture: AFP

Lando Norris brushed Oscar Piastri after the Monaco Grand Prix. Turned his back on him. Talked over the top of him. Laughed at him. Cut him from conversations. It was unspeakably rude and not the first time the extroverted Norris has treated the introverted Piastri like he’s invisible.

Well, the invisible man struck back in a mad Spanish Grand Prix highlighted by Piastri winning as comfortably and serenely as a child riding a carousel horse at the Easter Show and mad Max Verstappen taking his madness to new levels by getting so mad he could have killed George Russell. Red Bull’s Mad Max rammed Mercedes’ Russell in an intentional collision that proved he’s mad as a cut snake when angry, madder than King Lear, driving like he’s in a dodgem car at the same Easter Show that has Piastri’s carousel ride. He’s mad as a hatter, mad as a box of frogs, madder than Mel Gibson’s Mad Max. Verstappen is the maddest Max of all.

Piastri is winning the all-McLaren mind games instigated by Norris. His gorgeous victory at Catalunya started with a fearless and flying start he might otherwise attempt if he’d just robbed a bank. He burnt Norris and Verstappen to smithereens from the opening second and 66 laps later, he was taking the chequered flag from Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who, by the way, is the best bloke on the grid behind Piastri.

“Very nicely done,” he said after extending his driver’s championship lead to 10 points over Norris in what has become a two-MCL39 race for the crown. “I’m very proud. A superb weekend.”

The racing machine is no quote machine. More power to him for that. Most folks in Formula One are honking like geese but Piastri just wants to get in his car and drive. At Monaco, where he finished third, he sat next to the triumphant Norris in the press conference. When Norris spoke, Piastri was all ears and politeness. When Piastri spoke, Norris gave him the cold shoulder, starting an over-the-top conversation with Leclerc, to his right, who looked embarrassed and didn’t really say boo. Piastri was trying to good-naturedly answer questions as Norris’s yabbering lasted so long it became awkward and palpably disrespectful.

A week earlier, after the Emilia-Romagna GP, Norris had pulled a similar showboating stunt, incessantly buddying up to Verstappen, cornering him in dialogue in a blatant attempt to leave Piastri sitting quietly on his own.

Race winner Oscar Piastri (right) sprays champagne at McLaren teammate Lando Norris on the podium after the Spanish Grand Prix. Picture: Getty

Come Catalunya, and Norris choked. When the McLaren duo had one all-or-nothing qualifying lap to go, the invisible man absolutely nailed a lap so perfect it left the finest of the F1 commentators, ex-world champion Nico Rosberg, calling it a thing of beauty. Norris made errors on virtually every corner, clunking around like he was on his L-plates, bunny-hopping back to the garage to gift Piastri the pole position that was so masterfully converted to the Australian’s fifth victory of an action-packed, rip-roaring, electrifying season.

Rosberg is the most likeable of the honking geese. And he knows exactly what Piastri and Norris are embroiled in. Rosberg was in a famous all-Mercedes showdown with Lewis Hamilton for the title in 2016 … and won it. He was effusive in his praise of Piastri after the carousel ride in Spain.

“He’s just so solid in his head at the moment,” Rosberg told Sky Sports. “He’s always delivering, no mistakes, and Lando is a little bit the opposite. You’ve gotta remember, for both of these guys, it’s their first time really being favourites in such a clear championship fight. To be expected to be champions, it’s a different pressure, and it seems to be getting to Lando more at the moment. We’ve seen over and over from Lando, when the pressure is highest, there starts to come these little mistakes. They creep in and it’s happened again. Looking at Oscar … it’s just beautiful. It’s just perfect. Under the highest pressure, he delivers the maximum of his potential. You have to be in the right flow and I have to say I am seeing that in Oscar Piastri. You just see his confidence”

If Piastri was invisible at Catalunya it was because he was so far ahead that Norris couldn’t see him. “I don’t actually know if Lando has a mental coach?” Rosberg said. “Does he work with a psychologist, or not? He definitely should. There’s so much value in that. I worked with one in my championship year and it helped me so much. I did two hours every second day leading up to the season. It was more difficult than the actual physical training. It was insanely difficult and just so extremely valuable.”

Verstappen went bonkers. Mad Max went all King Lear amid a perfect storm of all things that annoy him. For starters, this was the race that killed his chances of a fifth world title. He finished tenth to fall 49 points behind the invisible man. That’s too far back and Lear’s title defence is over. Leclerc muscled him out of the way in a one-on-one battle. That annoyed the mad King Lear. Then Russell was at fault when making contact on a high-speed turn. That annoyed the mad King Lear. When Lear’s team told him to concede a place to Russell, he went ballistic, wildly swinging his dodgem car to the right to take out the Mercedes driver.

Oscar Piastri leads into the first corners on his way to victory at the Spanish Grand Prix. Picture: Getty

Could’ve been catastrophic. Verstappen received a 10-second penalty. The geese, and bless them all, the geese are now honking about whether he should be kicked out of next week’s Canadian Grand Prix for an action called “deliberate,” “surprising” and “unnecessary” by Russell, and “incomprehensible” by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. While these how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-Verstappen debates blow and crack their cheeks, he’s at least conceded his chances of beating Piastri and Norris this year have become slim and none.

Norris said he’d done a Verstappen once … playing the Mario Kart computer game. Mad Max could have repaired the dent to his reputation by apologising and explaining he’d simply lost his marbles in a moment of crazed frustration. Instead, he became surly and lame. “Does it matter?” he said when asked why he rammed into Russell. “I prefer to speak about the race more than just one single moment. We are way too slow anyway to fight for the title. I think that was clear again today.”