Piastri “happy” with Canada quali despite crash

For the second race in a row, Oscar Piastri will be starting in the top 10 despite crashing in a wet Canadian Grand Prix qualifying.

Piastri will start his first Canadian Grand Prix from ninth position after making Q3 in a solid, but also troubled Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

One of the hallmarks of the 22-year-old’s start to his rookie Formula 1 season has been his composure, with no significant crashes or major mistakes.

However, the slippery and docile conditions finally brought the young Aussie unstuck.

As Piastri tried to put the foot down on the exit of Turn 7, he lost the rear and went backwards into the concrete, bringing out a session-ending red flag.

Despite the disappointment, Piastri was still pleased with ninth, as McLaren had both cars in Q3 for the second straight race.

“I think overall we are reasonably happy,” he told F1.com.

“Obviously it was a shame for it to end the way it did. I am disappointed in myself.

“But I am not too disappointed because I am not sure how much further up we could have gone and to have both of us in Q3 again is really encouraging.

“I enjoyed my first qualifying session at Canada, it certainly threw everything at us.”

Despite rain catching out many drivers including Carlos Sainz, who slid off at Turn 1 at high speed, Piastri has shown speed throughout the weekend.

He was sixth in the rain shortened opening practice before being 11th fastest on Friday afternoon when Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2.

After only being 12th fastest in FP3, Piastri found some extra speed when it mattered in qualifying.

In the latter stages of a crazy Q1 in mixed conditions car #81 put in a strong enough lap for 10th ahead of Ferrari Carlos Sainz.

Piastri then went even better in a mixed up Q2 led by the Williams of Alexander Albon as drivers had a delicate choice between Inters and Softs.

The Aussie had set a purple first sector, but disaster nearly struck when he was impeded by a slow-moving Aston Martin.

However, Piastri still did enough to set the fourth fastest time of the session and progress into the final stage of qualifying, something heavy hitters Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez did not.

Ultimately Q3 ended in disaster, but the pace shown has left Piastri and McLaren optimistic for what is to come Sunday.

McLaren hopes the cool and wet conditions will continue to cover the Ile Notre-Dame after the papaya cars dropped from the top 10 to outside the points when the temperatures increased in Spain.

Piastri admitted he is confident of chasing points in Montreal.

“We are hoping it (race pace) will be better,” he said.

“I think our pace in the dry on Friday was pretty strong in all honesty, so we will have a degree of confidence.

“We don’t want to overstate ourselves but we can definitely fight for points.”

Lights out for the Canadian Grand Prix will take place at 4:00 AM Monday, AEST.

Qualifying Results:

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	Q1	Q2	Q3	LAPS
1	1	MaxVerstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	1:20.851	1:19.092	1:25.858	26
2	27	NicoHulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	1:22.730	1:20.305	1:27.102	25
3	14	FernandoAlonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:21.481	1:19.776	1:27.286	25
4	44	LewisHamilton	MERCEDES	1:21.554	1:20.426	1:27.627	26
5	63	GeorgeRussell	MERCEDES	1:21.798	1:20.098	1:27.893	25
6	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	1:22.114	1:20.406	1:27.945	25
7	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:21.998	1:19.347	1:28.046	26
8	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	1:22.248	1:19.856	1:29.294	26
9	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:22.190	1:19.659	1:31.349	24
10	23	AlexanderAlbon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:21.938	1:18.725	DNF	24
11	16	CharlesLeclerc	FERRARI	1:21.843	1:20.615		22
12	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	1:22.151	1:20.959		23
13	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:22.677	1:21.484		20
14	20	KevinMagnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:22.351	1:21.678		21
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	1:22.332	1:21.821		24
16	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	1:22.746			11
17	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	1:22.886			11
18	21	Nyck De Vries	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	1:23.137			12
19	2	LoganSargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:23.337			14
20	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	1:23.342			11

Download the full F1 Canadian Grand Prix event guide HERE with track stats and facts and a full event schedule, plus our extensive driver profiles.

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