Oscar Piastri was “pumped” to claim his first Formula 1 pole position in Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix after admitting to some struggles earlier in the session, while McLaren team mate Lando Norris will start from P3, the Briton blaming his own mistakes following an aborted final lap.
After Piastri displayed good pace in Saturday’s Sprint earlier in the day – crossing the line in second place behind winner Lewis Hamilton – the Australian continued to look in strong form during Qualifying, grabbing provisional pole in Q3 before sealing it for real by the chequered flag.
However, when it was put to Piastri after stepping out of the car that he had seemed hooked up throughout the day, the 23-year-old joked: “I’m glad it looked like that because it didn’t feel like that!
“Q3, [I] just found a lot of pace – Q1 and Q2 I was genuinely struggling. The car just came alive in Q3 and I think I came alive in Q3. [I’m] happy with what I did at the end, it was still… the laps were a little bit scruffy. I’m just pumped to be on pole, so [I’m] very happy.”
Piastri’s effort of a 1m 30.641s is now the fastest-ever to be completed at the Shanghai International Circuit and, reflecting on how it feels to drive at the track following its recent resurfacing, the McLaren driver explained: “It’s a lot of fun.
Piastri claimed the first pole position of his F1 career in Qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix
“I think with the new surface it’s extremely grippy, which for us is the best feeling in the world. The only thing that comes with that is when you lose grip, it bites – you’ve probably seen a lot of snaps, a lot of moments this weekend, and with the surface we’ve got it’s pretty tricky, but when you hook it up it feels pretty mega. I’ll take the fastest lap of Shanghai.”
Now Piastri’s focus will be on race day and, looking back at his performance in the Sprint, the two-time race winner is hopeful that learnings from the event can be taken forward into the Grand Prix.
“I think that [having clean air at the start] is hopefully going to be a help, I’ve just got to make sure I keep that clean air,” he conceded. “I was pretty happy after the Sprint, I think we did the most that we could have.
“I would have been happier with one spot higher but, how the race turned out, I couldn’t have asked for much more. I feel like we learned a lot this morning and I’m looking forward to trying to put that to use tomorrow.”
Norris, meanwhile, faced some ups and downs during Saturday in Shanghai, having taken the final point on offer with P8 in the Sprint before aborting his final flying lap during Q3 in Qualifying, meaning that he could not improve on his time in P3.
Norris aborted his final flying lap in Q3, leaving the Briton in third place on the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix
Despite this, the Briton spoke positively about improvements made to the car prior to Qualifying and blamed his own errors for any struggles.
“[I’m] always disappointed if I’m not on pole but Oscar deserved it today,” Norris said after the session. “He’s done a very good job all weekend so [I’m] happy for him – his first pole in Formula 1, so it’s always cool.
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“Just a couple of mistakes [on my side] again, it’s kind of been my case this weekend. The car was feeling a bit better. I felt a lot more comfortable with the car so [it was] a step in the right direction, especially from yesterday where I was struggling a lot and even this morning I was struggling a lot, so a much better direction that we’re going in. [I’m] not too disappointed.”
Norris echoed his previous sentiments that the MCL39 can be tricky to drive but added: “It’s still quick enough, we never doubted that it’s the quickest car, it can just be a little bit feisty at times. Today it’s not so much that, today was just mistakes from my side and that’s all.”
Pushed further on whether the team carried out many changes to the car after the Sprint – and how he is feeling looking ahead to Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix – Norris answered: “We changed quite a lot on the car because we were nowhere. We worked quite hard to make some improvements into Quali and then for the race tomorrow. We’ll see.”
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