– A dejected Oscar Piastri describes his qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix here live in the ticker as “shocking” and “chaotic,” after only managing to place seventh, while his McLaren teammate Lando Norris secured pole position.
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Piastri struggled with his pace throughout the entire weekend on the new track in Madrid. Apart from the 3rd free practice, he did not manage to get into the top six in any training session or qualifying session in Madrid.
After being 0.360 seconds slower than Norris in Q1 and 0.331 seconds slower in Q2, Piastri was again in seventh place after his first run in Q3 – albeit only a razor-thin 0.017 seconds behind the Briton.
However, on his second attempt, the Australian could only improve by 0.248 seconds, while Norris – despite an estimated three-tenths time loss in the last corner by McLaren – gained a massive seven-tenths and catapulted himself to pole position.
Piastri describes his second Q3 lap to Sky Sports F1 as “pretty shocking” and gives the attending journalists deeper insights: “That was really one of those sessions where you’d rather press the reset button and start all over again,” he says.
“It was less a huge fight with the car, but just pretty chaotic. I had to abort my first lap in Q1, and that throws you a bit out of rhythm and the usual flow. On a track like this, you lose a lot of time very quickly because of that, that was the problem,” says the Australian.
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“Also my last lap in Q3 … I’m not surprised the gap is so big. Honestly, it was pretty… rubbish. Unfortunately, that’s how it sometimes goes.”
“But I think it was a slightly better weekend than Monza. At least in the sense that I’m more satisfied with how the car behaves. Today was simply one of those days,” he laments.
McLaren – Qualifying & Race
| Grand Prix | Norris (Q) | Piastri (Q) | Norris (R) | Piastri (R) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 5 | 7 | 5 | |
| Australia | 6. (+0.095) | 5. | 5. | Did not start |
| China | 6. (+0.058) | 5. | Did not start | Did not start |
| Japan | 5. (+0.277) | 3. | 5. (+9.8) | 2. |
| Miami | 4. | 7. (+0.317) | 2. | 3. (+23.8) |
| Canada | 3. | 4. (+0.203) | Retirement | 11. |
| Monaco | 8. (+0.141) | 7. | Retirement | 4. |
| Barcelona | 4. | 7. (+0.089) | 3. | 5. (+34.9) |
| Austria | 6. | 7. (+0.009) | 7. (+9.7) | 4. |
| Great Britain | 6. | 8. (+0.155) | 4. | 11. (+2.9) |
| Belgium | 3. | 7. (+0.215) | 7. (+5.0) | 5. |
| Hungary | 1. | 5. (+0.477) | 1. | Retirement |
| Netherlands | 1. | 4. (+0.142) | 1. | 6. (+32.3) |
| Italy | 9. (+0.290) | 3. | 4. | 5. (+0.2) |
| Spain | 1. | 7. (+0.470) |
When asked if he ever believed the car was good enough for pole position given his teammate’s success, Piastri replies: “Probably not. I think with an optimal performance you could have finished further forward than where we have consistently been. But setting the pole lap was undoubtedly an impressive achievement.”
Since the April break (including the sprints), Piastri has now lost the qualifying duel to Norris 2:13, with an average deficit of 0.123 seconds.
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