McLaren has been on an incredible run of form since the introduction of their upgrades at the Miami Grand Prix, securing a win, plenty of podiums and strong qualifying positions.
The qualifying session at Silverstone was no different as Lando Norris managed to secure third position. Oscar Piastri, who, like his teammate, had looked quick in Q1.(P5) and Q2 (P4), will start the race in fifth place.
Nonetheless, it all went wrong on the final run in Q3 as McLaren got their timing all wrong and sent him out too late, leaving him directly behind Carlos Sainz for his last try. He failed to improve.
“I think in Q1 we were very quick. I did my lap a lot earlier than everybody, so I think we were good. Q2, again, we went a bit early and we were good.
“And then Q3, for the last run we just left it way too late and I opened my lap about half a second behind Carlos. So, helpful for the straights, definitely not helpful for the corners.
“So yeah, just some things to review there because I think we had more potential than what we showed today.
“Yesterday was a bit of a difficult day for a few reasons, but I think through qualifying it was looking good.
“Just got it a little bit wrong on my first push lap and then the second one we just, yeah, got it massively wrong with the timing of leaving the pits. So that’s just a shame we didn’t get to have another attempt when it really counted.”
The competition has been getting more fierce as the season goes on, and in the qualifying session, Mercedes outpaced the McLarens and Max Verstappen.
Piastri commented on the closeness of the field at the front, believing all five drivers have a shot at victory tomorrow.
“I think we’re all very even, to be honest.
“I think the Mercedes looked very fast, they had a good day yesterday and in the rain this morning they looked quick. And they were very quick just now. So, I think they’re one of the quickest, if not the quickest, at the moment.
“Max, I imagine, has more in the tank because I can’t imagine his floor looked great after going through the gravel.
“So yeah, I think out of the five cars they are very evenly matched at the moment. So, it’s going to be about who maximises the opportunities tomorrow.”
During the Austrian Grand Prix qualifying session, Piastri secured third position on his last lap of Q3, or so it seemed. His lap time was deleted after a track limit infringement at turn 6 that pushed him down to seventh position.
McLaren tried to appeal the decision to no avail, and following the driver briefing, it was clear that the 23-year-old remained dissatisfied with the response he received from the FIA.
If he had started P3, the Aussie would have more than likely taken his first Grand Prix win as Verstappen and Norris collided on lap 64.
“They were pretty poor, let’s leave it at that.
“It’s between us and the FIA, but the methodology of deleting the lap was not correct. So that was obviously quite frustrating and with no way to […] we tried to appeal, tried to do everything we could to have it looked at, but there’s no way in the rules to do it. So yeah, that was frustrating, especially given the events of the race.
Piastri confirmed it was not the helicopter view that saw him lose his lap time, saying that it “apparently wasn’t used, which is even more concerning given what was used”.
“I think there’s some discussions to be had. And I think, honestly, we had a good discussion between all the drivers and the FIA yesterday on various topics. So, we had a pretty open chat about things we can improve.”
