2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button praised Oscar Piastri’s ability to “control the race” head on after winning the Miami Grand Prix.
Piastri became a winning hat-trick to extend McLaren’s teammate Lando Norris to 16 points in the Formula 1 drivers championship.
A key point in the race was the start of Norris being kicked out of the track by Max Verstappen.
The incident promoted Piastri to the second and gave him his first chance past Verstappen.
By the time Piastri and Norris overtook Verstappen, the Australian had a nine-second lead in front of the field.
Norris reduced this to 4 seconds by the end of the race, suggesting he has the advantage of a small pace.
In a post-race interview with Parc Ferme, Button noted the “big differences” he noticed at Piastri this year.
The button says to the piastry: “For me, the big difference from last year until now, from now on is the pace of the race.
“The way the race is controlled doesn’t seem to look back when Oscars are placed in the lead at Grand Prix.
Piastri replied: “Yeah, I think the first stint was really, really strong, and then I honestly had a bit of a struggle. So it was good that I made that gap in the first stint.
“Finally, I think I started to have a little more control over things, but there is no doubt that I should work on this afternoon.
“So I’m very pleased with the victory and very pleased with the points, but I’m very pleased to keep Miami on top because I was able to continue learning.”
Button praises “very smart” piastry
Button recognized Piastri’s skill in wheel-to-wheel combat.
Sky F1 Pundit was impressed by the way Piastri pushed Verstappen against the dirty line, and ultimately made the mistake that gave him a race lead.
Norris, meanwhile, was difficult to reach Verstappen and lost even more time.
“It’s really funny because Oscar really squeezes him. Max puts it inside. Usually drives the outside and pulls the inside guy as far as possible,” the button added.
“But Max is narrowed down to the top.
