Oscar Piastri has extended his lead in the Formula One drivers’ championship after surging to the front to win his third straight grand prix — the first Australian to claim a hat-trick since Alan Jones in 1981.

But Australia also claimed last on Sunday (Monday AEST), with Jack Doohan forced to retire early following a collision with New Zealand’s Liam Lawson on the opening lap.

Doohan rode a kerb and struck Lawson, spinning the Kiwi while suffering his own puncture that left him unable to drive back to the pits.

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The incident is certain to ramp up the pressure on Doohan despite Alpine continuing to publicly back the rookie amid continued speculation about a promotion for reserve driver Franco Colapinto.

Further up the field Piastri had to get his elbows out to get by Red Bull’s four-time champion Max Verstappen, who had already seen off McLaren pole-sitter Lando Norris in another fiery battle.

“It’s the way it is with Max. It’s crash or pass,” Norris said.

Norris recovered to claim second but could not catch Piastri, who finished 4.6 seconds ahead while Mercedes’ George Russell was a whopping 33 seconds behind the second McLaren.

Piastri, who finished second to Norris in the sprint race a day earlier, said he was well aware he needed to avoid being caught out against Verstappen.

“I won the race that I really wanted to after a difficult Saturday,” he said.

“To come away with a win still on Sunday is an impressive result.

“It was a bit of argy-bargy at turn one, which helped me out a little bit. I was aware enough to avoid Max coming through and from that point onwards I had a good pace advantage and the car was unbelievable today.”

Piastri now leads the championship by 16 points while McLaren are 105 points ahead in the constructors’ title race.

The only driver to have won multiple grands prix this season, he has now won in China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Miami as the circus rolls on to Europe in a fortnight.

“Two years ago here in Miami, we were genuinely the slowest team. We got lapped twice,” Piastri said.

“To now have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result.”