Oscar Piastri admitted to being ‘quite surprised’ at managing to beat George Russell in a battle during the Formula 1 Japanese GP. The Australian achieved his first podium of the season, while the Briton finished outside the top-3.
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In Suzuka, the McLaren driver qualified behind the Mercedes duo, but when the start was given, he had an excellent getaway and put himself at the front, while his opponents dropped down the field.
Oscar expected the Briton to pass easily because of the German team’s performance in 2026, but that was not the case. Therefore, staying ahead of Russell in Japan became something surprising for the competitor.
“I think we felt that maybe we could stay ahead of Ferrari. I think, looking at qualifying, clearly something went wrong with Charles and Lewis’s strategy, so I think the gap I had in qualifying favored us a bit,” he said.
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And yes, we thought it would be a challenge. And, to be honest, I think Charles and I had a very similar pace for most of the race. It was more or less what we expected. I think managing to keep George behind was a big surprise. As soon as he got back to second place, I thought he would overtake me in about half a lap and I would settle into second place, hoping Kimi fizesse o mesmo,” he added.
But the fact that we managed to stay so close to Mercedes and beat one of them was a much more pleasant surprise,” he concluded.
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