Piastri confident for “massive” Qualifying after Friday lead

Finishing top of the timesheets on Friday was just the start Oscar Piastri needed in Singapore, with the Australian confident his car is “in a good place” as he underlined the “massive” importance of tonight’s qualifying session.

Laying down his first track miles since a painful weekend in Baku, Piastri kicked off his Singapore Grand Prix campaign with a brief nine-lap stint on the hard compound tyre, recording an opening time of 1:33.239s before retreating to the comfort of the McLaren garage with the eighth fastest lap to his name.

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He remained in the pitlane for an extended period, only emerging with 25 minutes on the clock and armed with the soft compound tyre.

It wasn’t the smoothest stint, however, with Piastri reporting his MCL39 felt “very understeery” across the lap, with that issue particularly visible at Turn 9.

Piastri also found himself held up by Lewis Hamilton at the first turn, with the Ferrari driver late to move off the racing line, prompting the frustrated Australian to question the Italian outfit’s use of mirrors as he aborted his run. 

Piastri’s biggest moment of the session came at Turn 17, with the #81 instantly asking the McLaren pit wall to “check the right side of the car” after he made heavy contact with the wall, however, he was able to continue for the remainder of the session. 

Piastri moved into a peak position within the top three with a fastest time of 1:31.481s, though a drop down the order to P5 was on the cards as he commenced his high fuel program.

In the final minute of FP1, Piastri had another dicey moment on the exit kerbs at Turn 7, however, the Australian made it safely back to the McLaren garage as the chequered flag flew.

“I think I found my feet on the medium at the end there, and then, yeah, the soft felt good,” Piastri said.

“Obviously, not much representative, kind of, race running, but no, the cars been in a good place.

“I feel like I’ve learnt a lot through today, and that’s the aim of practice, so it’s been a good day.”

Wasting no time in the representative conditions, Piastri was the second driver to grace the Marina Bay Street Circuit as he started FP2 on the medium compound tyre. 

It was a twitchy first flying run, but still, Piastri managed to record a solid opening lap of 1:33.424s, leaving him in fifth-fastest after the initial attempts had been completed.

Around the bumpy streets, the Australian found his way to the peak of the tables not once, but twice, after setting a flying time of 1:31.716s — a lap that ultimately left him 0.007s faster than Lando Norris’ attempt thanks to his slight edge over the Brit in Sector 3.

Two Red Flags threw a spanner in Piastri’s plans to maximise the crucial practice session, with the McLaren driver unable to set a time between the Green Flag after George Russell’s crash, and a second Red Flag caused by Liam Lawson, however, his qualifying simulations picked back up shortly after.

“More or less I think [everyone focused on short runs],” Piastri said.

“Here, I think Qualifying is a massive part of the weekend.

“It’s a massive part everywhere, but especially here, you’d rather qualify further up and deal with the unknown for the race, than qualify further back but know exactly what’s going to happen in the race, because it’s not really going to help you.” 

Picking up where he left off, the improvements kept coming for the Australian, who set the overall fastest time of the session with a 1:30.714s.

Having made up over a second on his pre-Red Flag record, Piastri finished just over one-tenth ahead of two Red Bull representatives in Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen.

With his teammate and championship rival off the mark in FP2 due to a pitlane incident, the final practice session will see the intra-team duel continue to unfold ahead of the first competitive session of the weekend.

Free Practice 3 will take place at 19:30 AEST tonight, followed by the shootout to set the grid for Sunday’s main event at 23:00 AEST.

Image: McLaren/X

2025 Singapore Grand Prix Schedule (AEST):

Friday, October 3rd:

FP1: 19:30 – 20:30

FP2: 23:00 – 00:00

Saturday, October 4th:

FP3: 19:30 – 20:30

Qualifying: 23:00 – 00:00

Sunday, October 5th:

Race: 23:00

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