Oscar Piastri has explained the "happy surprise" of his Chinese Grand Prix victory, as the pre-race fears of an extreme tyre strategy did not come to fruition.
Piastri dominated from pole position for a third career grand prix victory to make up for his disappointment from Australia, to lead home the 50th McLaren one-two in F1.
The Australian executed the one-stop strategy where there were concerns pre-race of a potential three-stopper, but the hard compound tyres held on to allow for the single stop, with Piastri now 10 points behind team-mate Norris in the standings in fourth place.
Reflecting on his race, Piastri reflected on the "happy surprise" of the Pirelli tyres.
"I hope so, it has been an incredible weekend from start to finish, the car has been mega all weekend," said Piastri when asked if the win would launch his title challenge.
"Today was a bit of a surprise with how differently the tyres behaved, but the team did a mega job.
"On the mediums it was still a bit tricky but it was much better than [in the Sprint], and the hard was a much better tyre than everyone, or certainly we, expected, so to go all the way like that was a bit of a surprise, but a happy surprise.
"I'm very proud of the race we managed to pull off, it wasn't easy."
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