The McLaren driver’s performance in qualifying was a great display of consistency, as he will start tomorrow’s Hungarian GP fron the second row for the second race in a row after Silverstone.
Piastri showed some speed in Q2 on the medium tyres, in provisional P2 behind his teammate, but had a tricky first attempt in Q3 which left him in P9. However, his second run significantly improved his starting position, joining his teammate on the second row.
The Australian rookie driver was rather satisfied with his driving, and even more pleased by the confirmation of the positive impact the upgrades he received in the British GP had on his MCL60, as he said in his post-qualifying session interview:
“I think we were optimistic – well, I was optimistic anyway, that we could be still in the fight with the teams we were around last weekend; maybe not at the front of that pack, but I think we’ve shown today that we can still be there.”
Photo credit: McLaren Racing
The 2021 Formula 2 champion had been a strong contender for a podium finish in Silverstone, but ultimately he was taken out of contention by an untimely safety car, two laps after his stop.
Piastri went on to discuss his afternoon: “Wasn’t the best of Q3 laps for myself, so I’m quite happy to still be in fourth, but I think behind us it’s been incredibly tight.
“If I was one-tenth slower, I’d be 10th and saying we’re not the second or third quickest team.
“It’s been a good confirmation that we can come to another track, very different conditions, and still be quick.”
However, points are yet to be scored in Hungary, and the Melbourne-born driver hopes that his car will perform just like it did last time out in the race, which was even better than the very positive qualifying:
“I think we had some doubts, for sure, at Silverstone that we’d be able to back it up in the race. If anything, we were almost quicker in the race than relative to where we were in qualifying.
“We’ll see. It’ll be a very, very good test for us if we can be strong tomorrow. It’ll be a hot race, a very
high deg race.
“If we’re going to be strong tomorrow, then I think we can be very optimistic that we should be pretty good at most of the places we go to,” he concluded.
