Piastri on Sprint pole success: “The car’s been mega all day”

Oscar Piastri admitted that his love for Spa might have given him “a couple of extra tenths” after overcoming a “scare” in SQ2 to storm to Sprint pole, topping a tense Sprint Qualifying session with a record-breaking lap that underlined McLaren’s strength heading into Saturday’s 15-lap race.

The Australian will take the start alongside Max Verstappen, seeking to capitalise while his teammate lines up from third with the championship margin on his mind. 

While Sprint points don’t carry the same weight as Sunday’s, every one matters in a title fight split by just eight at the halfway mark — making Piastri’s overnight quest to unlock more McLaren pace all the more crucial.

“I need to go and look,” the #81 explained. 

“The Red Bulls were very quick in a straight line, in practice – I don’t know if it was the same in Sprint Qualifying, but that makes life difficult and Spa is probably the worst track to have pole position at.

“Let’s see, and I’ll go have a look, but the pace in the car is really strong. 

“I’ve felt good today, so hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow.”

One of the last drivers to venture out of the pitlane, track position wasn’t a concern for Piastri, who breezed his way into the top spot with an initial SQ1 benchmark time of 1:41.769s.

That lap remained the fastest of the opening stage, with the Australian seeing out the remainder of the 12-minute session in the McLaren garage with confidence on his side.

It was Sprint Qualifying 2 where Piastri’s session came within just four-hundredths of a disastrous ending.

Unlike SQ1, McLaren was the first team to send its drivers out, with Lando Norris leading his teammate on their outlap around the longest circuit on the calendar as their rivals watched on.

The pair traded fastest sectors throughout the lap, but it was Piastri who was instantly two-tenths up on Norris through the first sector.

Carrying momentum into Sector 2, he tracked three-tenths up in the second sector before completing the lap four-tenths quicker than Norris.

His time in P1 was short-lived, however, when disappointment struck the Australian, who lost his time due to exceeding track limits at Raidillon, leaving him vulnerable as the track roared to life with four minutes on the clock. 

Scrapping to put a time on the board, yellow sectors littered Piastri’s timesheet when he took the chequered flag, seeing the 24-year-old only managing to record a subpar time of 1:42.128s. 

The lap dragged the #81 to the fringes of the top ten, sitting as the driver at risk with a 41-millisecond margin ahead of Liam Lawson in P11, however, it was just enough to keep him in the hunt for Sprint pole as he narrowly advanced to SQ3. 

Watching the minutes tick by, the pitlane finally burst to life with just four minutes on the clock, permitting just one outlap and one push lap in each driver’s pursuit for Sprint pole glory.

Third on the road but hoping to achieve more, Piastri trailed his teammate and Red Bull rival as he sped through the 19 corners, setting a personal best in Sector 1 before flying fastest through the middle sector.

While working his way through the lap, his teammate set an initial time to beat of 1:41.128s — a challenge Verstappen cleared with ease as the Red Bull driver crossed the line 0.141s quicker than Norris to claim provisional pole.

Piastri’s flying final sector dispelled any of Red Bull’s excitement, however, with the #81 skyrocketing ahead of Verstappen and Norris’ best efforts to lock in Sprint pole in Belgium.

Leaving the Dutchman at a significant four-tenths deficit and his teammate six-tenths in his wake, Piastri’s standout run remained untouched as the rest of the field completed their last-ditch attempts.

“It was a good lap,” Piastri said. 

“A little scare in SQ2 with the lap deletion, but the car’s been mega all day and I feel like I’ve been able to put in a lot of good laps.

“Thanks to the team, the car’s been great and this is a track I love. 

“It’s my favourite one of the year and, I don’t know, maybe that gave me a couple of extra tenths! 

“It’s always good fun around here when the car’s handling as well as it is today, it’s a pleasure.”

Piastri not only topped the timesheets in Sprint Qualifying, but also started the day as the driver to beat during the sole practice session of the weekend, finishing FP1 as the leader of an identical top three to the Sprint grid.

When asked after Sprint Qualifying where his confidence was coming from, the Australian didn’t beat around the bush: “I don’t know.”

“The car has been in a good window from Lap 1, and again it’s a track I always enjoy coming to and, yeah, I don’t know why.

“I think [I] had good confidence, I feel like the last few weekends have been good from a pace perspective but not so much from a results perspective, so it’s nice to get a result today.”

The Australian set a new blistering lap record in the process, recording a time of 1:40.510s around the Circuit de Spa Francorchamps, which was seven-tenths clear of Lewis Hamilton’s 2020 record.

Hoping to score a maximum of eight points in this evening’s Sprint event, Piastri will line up from the front row of the grid alongside Verstappen as the five lights go out in Spa Francorchamps, taking place at 20:00 AEST tonight. 

Image: Formula 1

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