Piastri: Verstappen win 'doesn't change much' for McLaren

Oscar Piastri has insisted Max Verstappen's victory at the Japanese Grand Prix 'doesn't change much' for the Formula 1 championship picture.

The Dutchman put Red Bull's troubles to one side to emerge with the win at Suzuka, taking pole on Saturday before dictating from the front.

It means that Verstappen is now just one point behind Lando Norris in the drivers' standings, with Chinese Grand Prix winner Piastri a further 12 points back.

Asked what impact Verstappen's win has on McLaren's mindset in the race for titles, Piastri told media including GPBlog: “I don't think it changes much. I think we currently have the fastest car.

"But our advantage is not enough to be careless and lean back a bit and not perform to the maximum. We saw that Melbourne was a very strong weekend for us, but we also pushed the car to its limits and both felt that we were driving very well.

"Not much needs to go wrong"

While McLaren took a one-two in China, the team failed to make an impact in the sprint, which was won by Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton ahead of Verstappen.

In the race in Shanghai, George Russell almost pipped Norris as the Briton faltered with brake issues and Piastri insisted that McLaren must be cautious with little room for error.

“I think both China and Japan have shown that not much needs to go wrong to not be at the front," he explained.

“In the race, we are definitely in an advantageous position, but in qualifying, you still have to be on top of it because the gap is still not large. As we saw in Japan, Max put in a good performance and that was enough to be better than us. So I think this once again shows that the whole year will be tight and we need to be in our best form.”