Piastri’s Sprint success overshadowed by “painful” qualifying setback

Oscar Piastri’s Sprint podium bliss shifted into a “painful” Qualifying miss after his top three-worthy lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits, demoting the McLaren driver to P7 for the start of tonight’s “tough” Austrian Grand Prix.

Launching well off the line from the third grid box, Piastri instantly found his MCL38 running alongside with Lando Norris up the steep incline into the first turn. 

He constructed an opening lap full of challenging moves on his teammate, having a look at Norris into Turn 4 before his characteristically mature mindset, and a close call with the #4’s rear, saw him settling into P3. 

“I think obviously finished one spot higher than I started, but didn’t have the pace in the second half of that one,” Piastri said.

“I thought Max and Lando were going to pave the way for me to come through at one point, but not quite. 

“There are some things to look at for this afternoon and tomorrow’s race, but we’ll definitely take the points, a really good haul compared to the other teams around us.”

The highlight of the 23-lap race was definitely Piastri’s charging move around the outside of Turn 6, sweeping around his teammate who had just come face-to-face with Max Verstappen.

On Lap 5, the temptation grew too strong for Norris, with the #4 taking a swing at Max Verstappen’s lead, leaving the door open for his trailing teammate to capitalise.

“I could see that they (Verstappen and Norris) were battling quite hard and into Turn 4, I saw the move was quite late.

“I knew there would be an opportunity on the exit. 

“I hoped I would get both, but I just bided my time, and tried my best. 

“I think I had probably one opportunity to try and get Max the lap after, but just didn’t quite have the pace after that. 

“Being patient at the start paid off a bit.”

The 23-year-old was hopeful of sizing up an instant move on the Sprint leader, however, by Lap 12, had dropped out of Verstappen’s DRS range.

Instead, the margin between the papaya teammates began to shrink as tyre management came into play.

Oscar Piastri leads Lando Norris during the Austrian GP Sprint at the Red Bull Ring. Image: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images.

Norris was lapping quicker than the leading McLaren, setting fastest lap upon fastest lap as the tally ticked down, but despite having the upper hand in pace, he couldn’t manage a move past Piastri.

The #81 took the chequered flag in second place with just seven-tenths separating the teammates, leaving McLaren as the highest-scoring team on Saturday.

McLaren almost had the highest average qualifying position with their drivers as well, had it not been for an unfortunate ending to Piastri’s “tough” Grand Prix qualifying session.

It was a calm Q1 session for Piastri, with the Australian starting off his qualifying campaign for the main event in P2. 

In the middle stage, the Australian set an opening lap time of 1:05.070s, positioning him ahead of his teammate with the third fastest time.

That lap time held its own in the fight for a place in the top ten shootout, allowing Piastri to advance with his original lap which actually was six-tenths slower than the benchmark.

When it came down to it, however, the 23-year-old’s stern efforts throughout the entire hour were wasted.

Piastri was picked up for running wide at Turn 6, a moment he doesn’t quite agree with, which resulted in his final Q3 lap time being deleted.

The lap deletion meant that Piastri dropped from a place in the top three, back into P7, with his banker lap time of 1:05.048s placing him above the likes of Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon.

McLaren lodged a protest over the lap deletion that was rejected by the stewards.

“I mean, I didn’t hit the gravel… so for me, I thought it was fine,” the #81 said.

“I haven’t seen it yet so yeah, we need to have a look.

“Just how painfully close it was.

“I think again, a bit painful that we’ve done so much good work in all the other corners of removing the element of track limits, and we still have a corner like that where you can not be in the gravel and still outside the track limits.

“Obviously, I’m the only one that’s done that in Q3 so it’s frustrating but yeah, just disappointing to not be having a better result out of that.”

Starting out of position, Piastri’s hopes of a podium finish are a reach, but not impossible.

The McLaren driver will have to contest with both Mercedes and Ferrari drivers on his way back up to P3, taking the five lights with Charles Leclerc directly ahead. 

“I think the pace is good but it’s not so much better than everyone else,” he said.

“You know, Max [Verstappen] looked to be on another level in qualifying and it was very much a battle for P2.

“It’s very, very tight between us, Mercedes and Ferrari it looks like, so should be a tough race.”

Lights out for the 71-lap Austrian Grand Prix will take place at 11:00 PM (AEST).

Image: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images

2024 Austrian Grand Prix Schedule:

Friday, June 28th

FP1: 20:30-21:30

Saturday, June 29th

Sprint Qualifying: 00:30-01:14

Sprint Race: 20:00-21:30

Sunday, June 30th

Qualifying: 00:00-01:00

Race: 23:00

READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

Podcast: Let’s talk about Betty Klimenko and the trolls

On this episode of The Autro Action Rev Limiter, Andrew, Bruce, and PG break down the Betty Klimenko interview from the latest edition of Auto Action

Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here