Oscar Piastri finally managed to compete in his first Formula 1 race of the 2026 season. And this Sunday (29), he not only managed to start but finished on the podium at the Japanese GP.
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The start of the Australian’s championship was quite complicated. In Australia, he was unable to compete in the race after crashing on the installation lap; in China, a problem forced him, as well as Lando Norris, to be unable to race.
But Suzuka brought a different scenario and after starting from third place he knew how to extract the maximum from the McLaren car, managed to stand up to Mercedes and finished in second place, behind only Kimi Antonelli.
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“We did well at the start. A good result today, it would have been very interesting to see what would have happened without the Safety Car. I managed to keep George behind me and, just before the pit stops, we were even opening up a small lead. A shame we didn’t have the chance to see what would have happened,” he said.
“But I think for us, at this moment, being disappointed with second place is a very good situation. Many thanks to the team. I think we did a great job with what we had. Of course we still need to improve performance a bit, but we took every opportunity we had today,” he added.
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