First, though, that move. It was delicious.
On the run to the first corner, Verstappen had actually dropped to third, with Mercedes’ George Russell edging ahead on his inside and Piastri apparently comfortably in the lead.
But, in the middle of the track, and not on the ideal line, Piastri braked earlier than he should have done, and it was all the invitation Verstappen needed.
He “sent it” around the outside with full commitment, and caught Piastri – an instinctive and clinical racer himself, normally – unawares.
“Yeah,” the Australian said. “I thought I had it pretty under control, and it was a good move from Max. So, I’ll learn for next time, clearly.
“Definitely would have done something different (in hindsight). I would have braked 10 metres later probably. Yeah. That’s all. Live and learn.
“But at that point, I wasn’t overly concerned to not be in the lead. But then our pace just wasn’t as strong as I expected.”
The move even impressed Verstappen.
“I was quite far back,” he said. “At the time before braking, I was basically in P3. But, of course, I was on the normal braking line, but I still had to come from far.
“And as soon as I braked late and then came off the brakes, I felt like: ‘OK, there might be a move on.’ So, I just carried the speed in. And, luckily, it basically was sticking. It’s not an easy move to make but, luckily, everything went well.”
What might happen next?
Seven races in, and a pattern is developing. On a high-speed track, the Red Bull and McLaren are a match for each other. But at a different speed range, the McLaren has a decisive advantage.
So the pendulum may keep swinging. Monaco this coming weekend is as slow as they come. It should favour McLaren.
Verstappen said: “Monaco is, of course, very, very different. So, let’s see how we are going to perform there. You know, last year was very difficult for us. I don’t expect it to be a lot easier this time around because there’s, of course, a lot of low speed, but we’ll see.”
The following weekend comes Spain, where the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is full of long, medium and high-speed corners. Red Bull territory. Except that tyre degradation is high there, which should help McLaren.
Overall, though, the trend, the maths, still favour McLaren.
Because on the tracks where the cars are pretty equal, either team can win. Piastri beat Verstappen in Saudi Arabia, for example. And then there are tracks where McLaren are simply better. Red Bull will, on current form, need McLaren to screw up to win on those.
But what there have not been – at least so far – are any tracks on which the Red Bull is dominant in the way the McLaren has been at about half the events so far.
Although Piastri is by nature a down-to-earth personality, who lets nothing apparently ruffle his sang-froid, he may have been thinking of this when he summed up his feelings on his third place.
“Honestly, given people had fresher tyres at the end, hanging on to a podium is not a bad result,” Piastri said. “And you’re going have tough days in the championship, and this is clearly one of them.”