McLaren continues their crusade as the top constructor as driver Oscar Piastri finished P2 in F1 Australian GP qualifying, clocking in a 1:15.180. Narrowly losing pole to Lando Norris, the team from Woking secured their first Australian Grand Prix front-row lockout since 2012.
Piastri on his qualifying
During the official post-qualifying press conference, McLaren F1 driver Oscar Piastri overall had a positive tone on his laps overall.
“It was pretty good,” he claimed.
“I was pretty happy with it. I think this weekend I’ve been pretty happy with the laps we’ve been putting in and how I’ve been executing them apart from the last lap of Q3.“
“But I think apart from that, I’ve been happy with how I’ve driven. I think [apart from] the last lap, there’s nothing I’m majorly kicking myself about. I think the gap’s very tight, obviously. I just needed a little bit more.”
During the last chance for pole, the Aussie going deep in Turn 11 was just enough for the home hero to lose out on his first pole position.
Citing tyre drop-off, in combination to the hotter temperatures down under. The final sector becomes ever so tricky to navigate, as per Piastri.
“I went a bit deep in Turn 11.
“I think with these tyres, with the hot temperature, as soon as you slide them a little bit or get them a bit dirty, they drop off a lot. I struggled a lot with the last sector and then went off at the second-to-last corner.
“I think that’s the fine line around here. I think that’s been a little bit of a struggle with our car so far. It’s been quick, but it bites at times. I think I’m pretty happy with the job I did. I’ll go back and see where I’ve been a little bit better.“
The view of the McLaren pace by Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri is quite confident about the performance and happy with what the car outputs. Albeit he is unsure of what the performance in the rain would look like as threats of rain grow over the circuit during the Grand Prix.
“Pretty happy, I think. Yesterday felt quite good. If it’s dry, then I think we’re in a good place.
“If it’s wet, it’s very difficult to tell. There’s a lot of places that can catch you out here.
“There’s a few corners in the dry and not corners that are very much corners in the rain. It becomes a fair bit trickier and then you’ve got white lines everywhere, with it obviously being roads. I think we’re pretty confident.”
Thoughts on winning the Australian GP
With McLaren in the picture of winning races this season, being the home hero, it would mean a lot to Piastri for him to win the race.
“It would be really special to be able to achieve that,” Piastri said.
“I’m not setting my sights too firmly on that, obviously. We’ve got a lot of work to do to try and maximise the race tomorrow.
“We’re going to see what the weather does first, but it would be very special, of course. I don’t really have another way of answering that question. It would be special and it would mean a lot.
“Obviously, to have an Aussie on the podium hasn’t been done in quite a while, so that would be a good start. But obviously, if I can stand on the top step, then I’ll do everything I can to achieve that.
“Putting national pride aside, I want to do it for myself as well. I’ll try my best, obviously.”
