Oscar Piastri\u2019s eight-point margin over Lando Norris at the top of the drivers\u2019 championship masks an even greater accomplishment, according to Jolyon Palmer.<\/p>\n
Piastri and Norris have dominated the opening half of F1 2025, with the former winning five races to dispel any notion of being McLaren\u2019s \u2018second\u2019 driver.<\/p>\n
Jolyon Palmer: Oscar Piastri winning the battle against Lando Norris<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the opinion of Palmer, who suggests that the Australian has managed to stem the tide from 2024, when he was a step behind his team-mate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s done well,\u201d Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to remember also where he\u2019s come from. This was a Norris team, really, last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Piastri had some great days, couple of wins, but Lando was the Number 1. He won the Constructors\u2019 Championship for them on the final day, winning the race, and he always seemed like he was going to be ahead. And then Melbourne came and he delivered a win from pole position as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think the fact that Oscar\u2019s managed to turn this around\u2026 even if they were split level, I think that\u2019s a win for Oscar right now after 12 races.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been very impressive,\u201d he added. \u201cThe question is then going to be about momentum and whether Lando can just find that form again that he showed last year to take it away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri has come out swinging in F1 2025.<\/p>\n
In Australia, he was shadowing his race-leading team-mate as rain hit Albert Park and sent both skating off the road and bouncing through the gravel.<\/p>\n
While Norris was able to cover with little more than a red face, Piastri spun and took an age to recover from the wet grass.<\/p>\n
He bounced back by dominating the Chinese Grand Prix with a consummate and underrated performance, doing so again in Bahrain. A wheel-to-wheel battle with Max Verstappen was resolved in the McLaren driver\u2019s favour in Saudi Arabia before another strong performance in Miami saw him net three wins in as many starts.<\/p>\n
Piastri won again in Spain in a season that has seen him off the podium just twice, but in the points in all 12 races thus far in F1 2025.<\/p>\n
Read more on McLaren\u2019s F1 2025<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49 Alain Prost makes new Oscar Piastri claim after Alpine to McLaren transfer<\/a><\/p>\n