Qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP was incredibly close between Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen and George Russell.
The three drivers fought until the very end of the Q3 session. They all completed impressive laps fast enough for pole position one after another. However, it was Verstappen who completed the fastest lap of the grid.
Piastri, who only achieved his first career pole this season, reacted to losing pole position for the Saudi Arabian GP.
Missing out on pole by 0.01 second
The fight for pole in Jeddah was incredibly close. Verstappen claimed pole with a time of 1:27.294. Piastri’s time was only one one-hundredth slower at 1:27.304.
Piastri was disappointed to be missing out on the front spot by such a fine margin. Despite this, he was still pleased with his overall performance.
“Obviously it hurts a little bit to be so close, but I was pretty happy with my lap, to be honest. There wasn’t a whole lot left in it. Leaving tonight pretty happy.”
Although happy with the team’s car, the Australian driver felt that the competition came from the rest of the field improving to be closer to McLaren’s strong pace.
“We’ve had to work pretty hard to get the car really dialled into the window, and it’s not been quite as simple as last weekend. So we’ve done a lot of hard work. I think the competition is a bit closer this weekend as well.”
Difficult to be consistent
Piastri shared how he was pleased with the car’s performance at Jeddah. His struggles came from finding consistency throughout the sessions.
“Through the weekend the car has clearly been quick, but it’s kind of been a bit what we’ve said a few times. It’s not been the easiest to get the lap time out of it, and that’s kind of been a little bit of a struggle this weekend, just being consistently quick.
When we get the lap together it’s clearly very good, but I think just trying to be consistent’s not been that easy. But I think in qualifying it felt quite good, so I think we got it into a good place.”
Three of the four Saudi Arabian GP have been won from pole position. Despite missing out on the front row start, Piastri is prepared to fight for another race victory.
The Australian shared how he feels positive about himself and the car’s performance. He is, however, apprehensive about racing behind others in dirty air which may impact his progress at the Saudi Arabian GP.
“I think we’re in a good place, the pace in the car is good. It’s going to be incredibly tough to overtake with the dirty air, but I think our pace is strong, so I won’t rule it out.
There’s a few more DRS zones, so let’s see what we can do.”
