F1 News: Oscar Piastri Complimented By Lewis Hamilton In Message To Engineer
The Qatar GP Sprint race was by far one of the best races this year. Though most fans expected Championship winner Max Verstappen to lead the race after a year-long display of dominance, it was rookie Oscar Piastri who took the lead in the Sprint race and stole the show with an impressive run. On hearing the news, Lewis Hamilton complimented the McLaren driver for his win.
For the first time in Verstappen's career, he won the championship title in a race he finished P2. For Piastri though, he was on cloud nine after a superb race that saw him defend George Russell with a clever strategy in hand of opting for the medium tires, thus resulting in him taking his first Formula 1 race victory.
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Hamilton has always expressed a liking toward his ex-team McLaren and hence, he never leaves any stone unturned in complimenting the outfit or its drivers. Piastri however seems to be displaying a Hamilton silhouette as he gradually transforms to become a strong rookie contender.
Hamilton joined McLaren in 2007 and he was widely considered the best rookie in Formula 1 since he started chasing championship titles the same year. Fast forward to 2023 and you see a little touch of the Mercedes driver in Piastri who took his first podium in Japan a few days ago after he finished P3, followed by a Sprint race victory in Qatar yesterday.
Being a McLaren well-wisher, Hamilton could not have let Piastri's Sprint win pass by without a compliment. In the recent past, we've seen how he encouraged and complimented Lando Norris, who Hamilton holds in a high place.
Making a dramatic recovery from P12 to P5, Hamilton asked his team on the radio after crossing the finish line if McLaren had won. His engineer replied, “Yeah, so, we’ve got Piastri P1, Verstappen, Norris P3, George P4,” to which Hamilton said, “Ah, amazing! Impressive! Oscar and the team.”
F1 News: Oscar Piastri Takes First Win In Qatar GP Sprint Race
He didn't stop the motivation there. After Piastri uploaded a post on Instagram titled "N1CE," the seven-time world champion shared the post in his Instagram story to show more support for the rookie. Receiving support from a legend like Hamilton is a big thing and I'm sure Piastri must've been elated after seeing his post in Hamilton's story.