Frustrated Piastri manifests dry Belgian GP after missing pole

Oscar Piastri was left frustrated after qualifying second for the Belgian Grand Prix, missing out on pole to teammate Lando Norris by just 0.085s, and is now among the drivers hoping dry conditions will offer a better shot at reversing the order in tonight’s main event.

Second place was the common theme for Piastri on Saturday, with the Australian losing his lead on the opening lap of the Sprint, never reclaiming ground over the steadier Max Verstappen and the morning event played out.

The silver medal was again Piastri’s come the chequered flag on Qualifying, though it was less than a tenth that separated the #81 from his teammate as McLaren sealed a front row lockout, headed by Lando Norris, for the Belgian Grand Prix.

“A bit disappointing, yes,” Piastri admitted.

“The second lap was coming together really well and just made a little mistake into [Turn] 14 and lost a lot of time. 

“So yeah, disappointed.

“Felt like the car was very good again, but it’s fine margins out there. 

“Obviously, not a bad place to be starting, but I think there was more in it which is always disappointing.”

The session played out smoothly for the papaya challengers, who stuck to their own run plan, undeterred by their rival’s Q1 strategies.

Many drivers opted to start their Q1 campaign with an exploratory lap, quickly returning to the pitlane to relinquish their used tyres in favour of a fresh set of the soft compound.

The McLaren duo didn’t follow that trend, when the Australian instantly popped to the top of the timesheets ahead of his teammate by a slim 78-millisecond margin before the rest of the field made their mark.

Having slipped down the order, the Australian used his second flying lap to push further, going purple through Sector 2 to slot into P2 — a position he remained in through to the end of the first stage, once again in close quarters with Norris.

“I think we’re a good team-mate pairing and we learn a lot from each other every weekend,” Piastri said, delving into the intra-team fight that saw Norris studying Piastri’s data to improve this weekend. 

“That’s what makes us such a good team but it also makes it difficult when you’re trying to fight each other. 

So, I don’t know, I feel like I did an okay job today, just didn’t quite execute when it mattered and yeah, a bit of a shame.”

Despite finding himself in the middle of the queue, Piastri recorded an opening Q2 time of 1:40.626s to hold the early benchmark, just 0.089s ahead of his teammate. 

When it came time to cement his place in the top ten, Piastri fought through traffic in the pitlane — namely avoiding Liam Lawson’s impatient VCARB — before later abandoning his push lap when the timesheets deemed it safe to do so. 

The Australian advanced to the top ten shootout as the hot favourite, seeking to continue his top form into the fight for pole position.

As the business end of Qualifying rolled around, Piastri was the first McLaren to cross the line.

The 24-year-old set a time of 1:40.751s to demote Verstappen from provisional pole, before he got a taste of his own medicine when Norris followed suit, knocking the #81 off the top step as he stole the provisional lead grid slot by less than two-tenths.

With two minutes on the clock, the drivers peeled out of the pitlane once again to commence their final out-laps, though Verstappen was soon out of the count as his run came undone at the first corner, grip costing him crucial time when he failed to improve.

The Dutchman was also shuffled out of the top three by Charles Leclerc, but the fight for pole remained a McLaren affair, with Norris and Piastri locked in their own duel, three-tenths clear of the rest.

Norris was the first of the papaya cars to take on the lengthy lap, not improving in Sectors 1 and 3 which left his initial Q3 lap his fastest overall.

Piastri set personal best sectors across the entire run, looking to close the small margin to his teammate before a “little mistake” into Turn 14 ruined his chances of snatching pole position. 

“The lap until that point was strong, but it doesn’t really matter if you could have done it — I didn’t,” the Australian admitted. 

“A bit disappointing, I think both laps in Q3 were a little bit like that, but that’s how it goes sometimes. 

“A bit of a shame, but the car was great again. 

“I felt like I was in a reasonably good flow, just didn’t quite happen on the second lap.”

As a result, Norris locked in the coveted front grid slot with a time of 1:40.562s, just 0.085s quicker than the #81 Q3 lap, however, five-hundredths of a second slower than the new lap record set during yesterday’s Sprint Qualifying session. 

Asked whether he might use Norris’ slipstream on the run to Turn 5, Piastri said any such strategy would depend on the weather.

“Let’s see,” he said. 

“If it’s dry, then yes. If it’s wet, then it obviously adds in some other challenges, but we’ll have to wait and see what the weather does first. 

“I know what I’m hoping for.”

The Australian added: “It’s probably the hardest track to maintain the lead on the calendar from the start.

“If the weather is wet though, I think pole position is an advantage, but it also depends on how wet it is. 

“Whether Eau Rouge is flat or not makes a big difference.”

With just nine points the difference between the leading teammates in the hunt for world championship glory, Piastri’s concern lies with bringing an end to Norris’ winning streak on Sunday, with wet weather racing undecidedly a help or hindrance come lights out for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The 44-lap race will kick off at 23:00 AEST tonight, with the Australian launching from an optimistic second place, despite the threat of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen in his mirrors.

Image: Mark Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

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