McLaren‘s Constructors’ Championship win briefly looked in danger as Piastri fell down the order after a move from Verstappen at Turn 1 spun both drivers out.
With Piastri plummeting down the order after being spun by Verstappen – a move for which the Dutch driver was penalised by the stewards – it made McLaren’s Constructors’ Championship bid look more tenuous as the Ferrari drivers stalked Lando Norris.
The British driver held the lead from pole position, with the points for victory enough to see off Ferrari’s bid as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc circulated in second and third place – had Sainz managed to clear Norris, it would have won Ferrari the title.
Piastri being taken out of contention meant McLaren’s position wasn’t as comfortable as the Woking-based squad hoped coming into the race, and it led the Australian to sarcastically brand Verstappen’s attempted overtake as “the move of a World Champion.”
Speaking after the chequered flag, team boss Andrea Stella said he was proud by how McLaren showed strength in adversity following the move from Verstappen, which he dubbed “unnecessary.”
Asked by PlanetF1.com whether he felt the racing gods were conspiring against his team after Piastri’s incident with Verstappen, Stella said: “The first thought I had after checking corner one is that it felt unnecessary.
“When you have teams fighting for the championship, it’s the pinnacle, it’s the time to harvest the efforts of a season, and that felt a little unnecessary.”
Beaming with pride as McLaren won its first Constructors’ Championship since 1998, Stella said the team had responded with aplomb to the worsening circumstances presented to them.
“Sometimes, adversities give you the opportunity to show your strengths and I think that’s exactly what happened,” he said.
“First of all, because Oscar never gave up and he came back to scoring a point that could have been very important. If not, the two points that could have been decisive in case of a swap between Carlos and Lando.
“Lando showed his strengths, delivering a perfect weekend and a perfect race when all the pressure was on him and he stayed very calm on the radio.
“He considered some difficult options that we gave him like when we said would you pit in case of a safety car or not for a new set.
“So, I think we saw Lando at his best and his best is just incredibly competitive. I can’t wait to see Lando and Oscar in the future with a competitive car right from race one.
“For me, if anything, the opportunity to show the strengths was in the last pit stop. The whole season was in the last pit stop.
“A problem at the pit stop and we could have lost the position to Carlos and we could have lost the championship. The guys delivered what I think is one of the best pit stops of the season, confirming the trajectory which was not only car performance but the overall maturity, mentality, and emotional resilience of the entire team.
“So, all this somehow was given the opportunity to be shown thanks to the accident in corner one. But hopefully, in the future, we don’t need adversities — we can just have a faster car and just be safer and not being in a decisive race at the last races of the season.”
Piastri’s recovery back into the points was also crucial, Stella explained, with McLaren fearful of a late Safety Car which may have left Norris under threat from Sainz.
“We were aware and that’s why we were pushing very hard with Oscar to make sure that we could get P9 because the two points would have been fundamental,” he said.
“We were definitely nervous because not only the back markers were a problem but the Safety Car would have been a problem because Carlos could have done the opposite of what we do.
“So, if we don’t pit, he could have gone on new tyres and it would have been a problem. If we had pitted, he would have taken the lead and we should have overtaken him.
“So, we were definitely nervous because of this happening, not so much about the back markers. It is expected that you lose a bit of grip behind the back markers but this is not a track where there’s a lot of space to overtake back markers.
“At that stage, Lando had built a good gap to Carlos — which was good to see by the way, because in the first stint, I don’t think there was much to pick in terms of performance between Ferrari and McLaren.
“But, on the harder compounds, as has often happened this season, Lando was the quickest car on track and this meant that we had a safety buffer.”
