Piastri flies to “best seat in the house” for São Paulo Sprint

Oscar Piastri will start the São Paulo Sprint from the “best seat in the house” tomorrow after denying his championship-contending teammate Sprint Pole by 29 milliseconds in Brazil.

From the outset of the 44-minute session, Sprint Pole looked to be comfortably in the hands of a McLaren driver, with Piastri’s blistering final lap sealing the deal on the opening day of the São Paulo Grand Prix weekend.

“I don’t think [I was] surprised,” Piastri admitted.

“It was coming together maybe a bit better than we expected, but I think we felt pretty comfortable after P1 this morning. 

“I think everybody was kind of thrown off a bit by just how bumpy the track was, so I think there were a lot of set-up changes going on, so the order was a bit jumbled. 

“But I think we were confident that on paper we should be pretty strong, and I think that session showed it.”

The Australian’s charge to the front row started on an equally comfortable note, with Piastri instantly putting himself in contention after recording purple sectors across the lap, shooting to the top of the order with a time of 1:10.265s.

Although falling one position to his teammate by the end of SQ1, Piastri was able to end the session early, neglecting to push for a second run after guaranteeing himself safety in the opening minutes of the session. 

With the order reset, SQ2 began and it was back into the top three fastest times for the #81 after recording an initial time of 1:09.603s, five-tenths behind Lando Norris.

On his second and final run, Piastri promoted himself into second place, with McLaren then heading into the top ten shootout with a 1-2 on the board.

Coming second to his teammate changed in the latter stages of SQ3, however, only after the Australian learned from the mistakes he made during his first attempt at Sprint Pole.

As the light went green in the pitlane, Piastri and Norris slowly rolled down the fast lane accompanied by no one after McLaren was the only team to send its drivers out for two laps, fearing the looming weather.

“We were a little bit concerned about weather, but we also thought the soft might be able to hang on for a second lap,” he said.

“Going through the pit lane you can go a lot slower, we all do it – mainly through practice, it’s rare through qualifying – but it clearly worked well today. 

“So we stayed true to the strategy we wanted to do and it paid off.”

Free of traffic, Piastri made a self-imposed error across the kerbs as he still battled to come to terms with the resurfaced circuit and his “nice little upgrade” in the rear wing.

He ended the messy lap behind his teammate, awaiting the competition in the dying minutes.

Returning to the circuit for a second shot at Sprint Pole, the Australian unlocked a new level of pace.

Piastri flew around the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, leaving his teammate marginally behind as he set a mix of personal best and fastest sectors.

The McLaren driver’s rapid efforts rewarded him with a standout time of 1:08.899s, earning him pole position for the Sprint in Interlagos by just 29 milliseconds to Norris.

“I think the very first lap of the session in SQ1, I put in a really good lap, and then I didn’t do another one at the end of SQ1, and I think the track was just really moving on really quickly – I think it was like a second and a half faster by the end,” Piastri said.

“So I think I was catching up a little bit through the rest of the runs, and the last laps on softs they hung on for a second lap which was nice, and I managed to put it on pole.”

But despite besting him in Sprint Qualifying, Piastri is keeping his teammate’s championship in mind, saying he would give up victory in the Sprint to gift his teammate an extra point.

“I said I would from when we first had these discussions,” Piastri said.

“It would be nice to win, but it’s one point different and it’s not the main race. 

“We’ll see, Lando needs the points in the drivers’ standings a lot more than I do, but of course, I still want to win. 

“So if I put in the effort and have good pace, I’m sure that won’t go unnoticed, but let’s see.”

Piastri added: “We’ll see what the pace is like tomorrow for both of us.” 

“I think first and second is the first objective, and then we’ll see where it is. 

“I know I’m not in the running for the drivers’ standings, and for the team, it doesn’t matter which way round we are. 

“So I know that’s the case, and we’ll see what they say.”

The teammates will line up side-by-side on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s 24-lap Sprint, with the intra-team battle into the first turn expected to be at an all-time low.

Image: Steven Tee / LAT Images

Piastri’s results:

2024 São Paulo Grand Prix Schedule:

Saturday, November 2:

FP1: 01:30 – 02:30

Sprint Qualifying: 05:30 – 06:14

Sunday, November 3:

Sprint Race: 01:00 – 02:00

Qualifying: 05:00 – 06:00

Monday, November 4:

Race: 04:00

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