Oscar Piastri labelled the Japanese Grand Prix as ‘certainly one of his greatest weekends in Formulation 1’ after claiming his first podium of the 2026 marketing campaign.
The McLaren driver completed runner-up to Mercedes championship chief Kimi Antonelli at Suzuka on Sunday, having loved a superb getaway from third on the grid.
That put him within the lead on lap one and it was solely due to the lap 23 security automobile following Oliver Bearman’s crash that he dropped to second, as Piastri had already pitted by that time whereas Antonelli may make an inexpensive tyre change.
It was a much-needed constructive weekend for Piastri, who made his first grand prix begin of 2026 having crashed out on the reconnaissance lap in Melbourne earlier than his MCL40 failed to fireside up at spherical two in Shanghai.
“This weekend was in all probability certainly one of my greatest weekends in F1,” stated fourth-year starter Piastri, who’s now sixth within the championship having additionally taken sixth within the China dash.
“I hit the bottom operating in apply, qualifying, we did a extremely good job of getting the automobile into the window I used to be pleased with on Friday.
“Within the race, yeah, there wasn’t something extra we may have completed. We bought begin, the tempo was good, I felt like I used to be strategic or good with how I used the increase and the way I managed that aspect of racing.
“Our technique was good, we didn’t blink too early. Clearly, the security automobile was a disgrace, however I believe as race weekends go we couldn’t have completed any higher than that. So yeah, for me I’m very pleased with the efficiency that I put in, very pleased with the efficiency from the entire group.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photograph by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Pictures
“Clearly, we’ve nonetheless bought some, firstly, efficiency to search out, but in addition Lando’s aspect of the storage was a fairly interrupted weekend with all the problems, and clearly the beginning of the season has not been straightforward for us with reliability, so we’ve bought a protracted strategy to go.
“However yeah, I believe we confirmed that if we get all the pieces pretty much as good as we will get it, then we will trigger just a few complications.”
Not solely was it a much-needed constructive for Piastri, but in addition McLaren basically, because it suffered a sluggish begin to its title defence sitting behind Mercedes and Ferrari within the pecking order.
The Australian additionally expects the image to stay the identical, claiming that beating these automobiles at Suzuka was nothing greater than a “nice shock”, significantly as Lando Norris had reliability points en path to fifth.
“We all know from final yr that even when you might have the very best automobile, you continue to must function it at an extremely excessive stage,” added Piastri.
“Immediately on our aspect we did a extremely good job of that. However I believe it’s attention-grabbing to see when another person has the quickest automobile that it’s not that easy and I believe the truth that I may preserve George [Russell] behind for thus lengthy was actually encouraging.
“However we’re below no phantasm. We did all the pieces proper this weekend and we nonetheless bought overwhelmed by 15 seconds, so we’ve bought a reasonably large hole to fill. I’m assured that we will get there, however sure, we’ve nonetheless bought some work to do.”
Photographs from Japanese GP – Sunday
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
Japanese GP – Sunday, in pictures
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