Stella thankful it was Hamilton Piastri made daring move on: 'Very fair competitor'

A key moment in Oscar Piastri's race win in Jeddah was his battle with Lewis Hamilton. A daring move around the outside of Turn 22 got him ahead of the Briton and in clean air to mitigate Max Verstappen's pitstop, who was yet to serve his penalty. How did McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, experience the 'dangerous' maneuver?

It was not an easy lights to flag race win for Piastri, but the Australian rose to the occasion etching his name in the title candidates list with authority. And for Stella it was reminiscent of a very much hand-over-fist win by the Australian in 2024.

Stella had complet trust in Piastri- and in Hamilton as well -

"Today for me was one race like Baku," Stella began in conversation with media like GPblog, in Jeddah. "In Baku it was very tense, if you remember, with Leclerc. But somehow I was so calm, because it's one of those moments where you know that Oscar is in control and he knows very well what he's doing."

So, no high octane emotions for the Italian? "Personally, I didn't have any kind of particular exciting moment there. He was very confident, he was very in control of the situation, and like I said, I think he also knew that corner one was his chance."

Stella also believes that Ferrari driver, Lewis Hamilton, being the Australian's rival in that particular battle, also helped him keep his emotions check, as he lauded the 7-time world champion for being a 'very fair competitor'.

"I also personally think that Hamilton is a very, very fair competitor and I think he knows that if it wasn't that corner, it would have been the next corner where there was an opportunity. So I don't think he was braking to create the most disruption to Oscar's lap. I was relatively calm."

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With his victory in Jeddah, Piastri now has taken over the championship lead from his teammate, Lando Norris, as the F1 circus looks to Miami, where the 6th round of the Formula Onew world championship will be held next weekend. Keep up with all the updates from the race in Florida here, on GPblog.