McLaren’s massive upgrade continues to impress as Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were P2 and P3 in qualifying for Sunday’s Imola Grand Prix, before the Australian was handed a 3-place grid drop for blocking Kevin Magnussen in Q1.
Combining Norris and Piastri’s best sectors, McLaren had the fastest car in qualifying by a small fraction. However, Verstappen took pole by 0.091s from Norris, with Piastri missing out by 0.074s before his penalty. The 23-year-old from Melbourne has the complete new package this weekend as well.
In Q3, Verstappen got a tow from Nico Hülkenberg on his final attempt and gained over a tenth. He got the chicane slightly wrong as he had more speed heading down to turns 2 and 3, losing some of that advantage. Nonetheless, he did enough.
Speaking in his traditional written media session after qualifying, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella discussed the fine margins between the top 3.
“You know, a tow in a track with this characteristic can happen.
“He was a little lucky there. I think he also had a mistake in the final corner, too. So Verstappen was in condition to score a pole position today.
“The gaps are so close that it could have been a matter not necessarily and only of car performance and driver’s merit — it could have been a function of little things here and there, a gust of wind or finding the right tow at the right time.
“He could benefit from there, but I think this doesn’t detract from the fact that […] I think he deserves to be in pole position.
“At the same time, we were in condition to be in pole position. But when the gaps are so close, there are many factors at play.”
The Woking-based team brought a massive amount of updates to Miami, significantly improving the car and allowing Norris to take his first win in Formula One, albeit with some help from the Safety Car.
Heading into this weekend, Norris’ Race Engineer Will Joseph expected the updates to perform even better at Imola.
Andrea Stella was pleased as great pace at a permanent circuit has confirmed McLaren is a genuine contender for poles and wins now. They’ve turned a sizeable deficit to Verstappen on other permanent tracks in Bahrain, Japan and China to getting within the same tenth on Saturday at Imola.
The Italian also confirmed the performance of the new package is going even better on track than predicted by the simulations.
“From a competitiveness point of view, I have to say we are quite happy with what we see. We would have not expected to be this close to Red Bull.
“It means that definitely the upgrades delivered lap time, because before the upgrades, we were tenths off Red Bull. Like Japan, we were six-tenths. A little closer in China, but still a bit off, at least on a single lap. So, we have improved from a lap time point of view.
“We know what the simulation would say in terms of how much the upgrades would deliver. I think on track, once again, we seem to find slightly more.
“It’s almost like you have, you know, an extra premium once you get your car to work better.”
Heading into tomorrow’s race, Stella assessed the strategical options the teams have up their sleeve, including going long on the hard tyre to come back strongly later in the race — that also opens up the possibility of benefiting from a Virtual or full Safety Car as a stop in Imola is just over 25s.
He’s also wary of Ferrari’s race pace as Charles Leclerc did a good long run on Friday afternoon — it was comparable to Norris’. Verstappen’s pace remains unknown as yesterday was a disaster for him.
“In general, we hope and we would like never to find ourselves in a condition where we roll the dice. It’s like we try to use some logical consideration and strategic consideration to see what’s the best approach to maximise the result.
“We have to say that the run to corner two here is one of the longest of the season. So, not necessarily the position on the grid will be the position, let’s say, at the end of lap one. We will see.
“In general, there’s some strategic options, because the hard tyres can go relatively long. So you can stop early and go for a long run and try to work with the undercut. Or you may stop later and then you might have to overtake some people but with fresher tyres.
“So, there’s a few options. We will see.
“But the most important thing is to have the pace, to be in condition to deploy these options, I would say.
“And then we will see tomorrow based on how the race unfolds.
“I still think that Ferrari are very competitive. Some of the lap times, especially Leclerc put together in free practice in his long run, to us look quite impressive.
“So, if he materialises those lap times, we will not only have to look at Verstappen, we will definitely have to think of Ferrari as well.”
