Oscar Piastri sarcastically mocked Lance Stroll in unheard Saudi Arabian Grand Prix radio

Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday after Max Verstappen was penalised for a first-corner incident. Verstappen cut the corner as he tried to defend his lead after a relatively sluggish getaway, and the stewards rejected his claim that he’d been forced off.

After Verstappen served his five-second penalty in the pit-stop phase, Piastri, who had hovered close to the erstwhile race leader without applying serious pressure, took the lead. He eventually crossed the line 2.8 seconds clear.

This was Piastri’s third win of the season, but the first time he’s lapped more than three cars. Despite an early safety car, Gabriel Bortoleto, Jack Doohan, Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg were shown blue flags.

Being lapped late on completed another miserable weekend for Stroll. He’d qualified down in 16th and couldn’t make any progress in the race, with his early points finishes already a distant memory.

Oscar Piastri joked about Lance Stroll amid Saudi Arabian Grand Prix blue flags

With five laps to go, Piastri asked McLaren why Stroll hadn’t been instructed to move out of the way.

“I’ve been within 1.5 [seconds],” he said. “Why isn’t there a blue flag?”

When the blue light appeared on the marshall posts, Piastri said: “F—— finally.”

Piastri cleared Stroll at the end of the lap, with Verstappen the next to approach him. But he noticed that the Dutchman took a while to come through.

“I see Stroll’s making lots of friends behind me,” he said.

Claiming that Verstappen was stuck behind the Aston Martin for two laps, Peter Windsor called Stroll’s driving ‘ridiculous’. He apparently ‘ruined’ the end of the race, though the battle for the lead naturally wasn’t his concern.

This isn’t the first time Oscar Piastri has questioned Lance Stroll’s driving

Speaking at last year’s Italian GP, Piastri criticised Stroll for failing, as he saw it, to heed blue flags. He felt he’d lost a second behind the backmarker.

Stroll was accused of ‘driving like it was his first go-kart race’. Piastri couldn’t work out ‘what went through his brain’ when he saw the blue flags.

It’s unclear whether the pair are on good terms after these remarks. Anthony Davidson says another top frontrunning driver in Yuki Tsunoda ‘really doesn’t like’ Stroll based on a radio message in Singapore last year.

Last weekend, Stroll set the record for the most Q1 exits in F1 history. That will strengthen the case of those who feel he doesn’t deserve to be on the grid, though he contends that it reflects the cars he’s driven.