McLaren driver Oscar Piastri's mother, Nicole Piastri, gave an adorable reaction to her son's podium finish at the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix. The Aussie driver started the race from P3 and consistently put pressure on his teammate Lando Norris ahead of him in order to gain a position.
The McLaren driver was the first of the frontrunners to pit in his bid to activate the undercut on cars ahead of him; however, it was to no avail. Piastri was close to overtaking his teammate into Turn 1 on a couple of occasions but was unable to pull it off given that he was a bit too far.
Oscar Piastri, who celebrated his 24th birthday on April 6, ultimately came home in P3 to knock the 12th podium of his F1 career. On her social media platform, X, Nicole Piastri was ecstatic with her son's birthday while also giving a cheeky shout-out to her "other boy," Yuki Tsunoda, who finished in P12 and won the Driver of the Day vote, saying:
"Birthday podium and Driver of the Day for my boys. Very proud,"
Piastri had finished a mere 0.044s behind Verstappen at the end of qualifying, which ultimately decided his fate.
Oscar Piastri analyzes his P3 finish at the Japanese GP
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri stated that he was "happy" with the pace of the MCL39 despite not making any progress in terms of results at the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix. In his post-race interview with F1TV, the 24-year-old reflected on his race:
"Yes, I think [our fate was sealed yesterday in qualifying]. The pace was good, I was very happy with that and we got close a few times. But the track position around here is so important.
"Yesterday was the day you win the race and [we] didn't do a good enough job. I felt if I had the track position I could go and get Max but that is what happens when you qualify behind."
Oscar Piastri's comments were echoed by teammate Lando Norris, who too believed that he lost out to Max Verstappen, adding:
"I guess I just lost out yesterday. Max drove a good race today, no mistakes. The pace was too similar today to do anything more. Long race, a lot of pushing."
Courtesy of his P3 finish, Oscar Piastri moves to P3 in the driver's standings with 49 points, with Lando Norris in P1 with 62 points. The British driver has a lead of just a solitary point on Max Verstappen after three races in the 2025 season.
Japan was the first race of the triple-header as the racing action moves to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the next two weeks.