Oscar Piastri celebrated a rare Grand Slam at Zandvoort—but he is not the first McLaren driver to achieve this dominance
Oscar Piastri achieved a feat at the Dutch Grand Prix that only 26 Formula 1 drivers have managed before him. The McLaren driver secured pole position with a margin of just 0.012 seconds over his teammate Lando Norris and led every lap despite three safety car phases in the race. He defeated Max Verstappen and Norris, who later retired from the race. Piastri also set the fastest lap on hard tires.
Pole position, victory, fastest lap, and leading the entire race – that’s a grand slam. However, Piastri is not the first McLaren driver to achieve such a series in a race weekend. McLaren has been dominant six times, Ferrari seventeen times, and Red Bull nine times. Mercedes and Lotus are tied with eight perfect Grands Prix. The record holder is Jim Clark.
Current drivers who have already achieved this are: Lewis Hamilton (six times), Verstappen (five times), Fernando Alonso (once), and Charles Leclerc (once). But which McLaren drivers have achieved such a Grand Slam in the team’s history?
1989: Spanish Grand Prix
To still have a chance at the title, Ayrton Senna had to win in Jerez. At the time, he was 24 points behind his teammate Alain Prost. Back then, the best eleven of 16 races counted towards the standings, which did not benefit Prost.
Senna put in a magnificent performance in Spain: in qualifying, he beat Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger by 0.274 seconds. Berger initially led the race, but then fell back due to an oil leak. Senna won and kept his title chances alive. In the following race in Suzuka, Senna and Prost collided. The Brazilian was subsequently disqualified for cutting the chicane. Prost thus secured his third title.
1990: Monaco Grand Prix
Formula 1 made its fourth stop of the 1990 season at the street circuit in Monaco. The championship battle between McLaren and Ferrari was wide open. Prost drove for Ferrari because his relationship with McLaren and Senna was no longer working. Senna led the overall standings with 13 points, while Berger, who was now driving for McLaren, and Prost had 12 points each.
Senna was a Monaco specialist at the time and secured his fourth pole position with a 0.482-second lead over Prost. On the first lap, the Tyrrell driver passed Prost on the outside at Mirabeau. Berger missed his braking point, crashed into the Ferrari, and caused a race interruption.
After the second start, Senna shot away at the front. Prost had to retire after 30 laps due to a battery defect. But suddenly Senna slowed down to save the Honda engine. In the end, he finished just one second ahead of Alesi and around 0.5 seconds ahead of Nigel Mansell.
1990: Italian Grand Prix
This year, Senna and Prost emerged as the title contenders. At Monza, 13 points separated the two. Home victories for the tifosi had become rare, but faith dies last. In qualifying, Senna was 0.402 seconds faster than Prost. His McLaren teammate Berger missed pole position by just 0.001 seconds.
The race is famous for Derek Warwick’s flying stunt in his Lotus. Senna dominated the action from the start. Prost and Senna fought an open battle for the fastest lap, but in the end, the Brazilian won the race by a tenth of a second.
Mika Häkkinen really picked up momentum. He claimed his first victory in 1997 and then won in Australia from pole position. In Brazil, he secured pole position with a 0.665-second lead over his teammate David Coulthard. McLaren dominated the race, and Häkkinen crossed the finish line 1.1 seconds ahead of Coulthard.
1998: Monaco Grand Prix
Häkkinen showed what he was capable of again this year, taking his fourth pole position in the sixth race, with Coulthard 0.339 seconds slower. McLaren dominated this race too, but the Scot put a lot of pressure on the Finn. There was also a back-and-forth battle for the fastest lap of the race.
However, Coulthard retired and Giancarlo Fisichella took second place in his Benetton, 19 seconds behind. When the checkered flag was waved, the gap was only 11.5 seconds. Eddie Irvine finished third and Mika Salo also finished the race in the lead lap in his Arrows. Only eleven cars made it to the finish line.
