Only 99 thousandths away from the Sprint pole at Zandvoort, Oscar Piastri believes a difficulty encountered since the start of the season cost him more time again.
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Oscar Piastri came close to joining the fight for pole position during the sprint qualifying of the Dutch Grand Prix. Fourth at Zandvoort, the McLaren driver finished just 99 thousandths behind George Russell, who set the fastest time.
The gaps were particularly small as Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc were sandwiched between Russell and Piastri, with all four drivers finishing within the same tenth of a second.
For the Australian, a few details would have been enough to claim first place. But a difficulty that has accompanied McLaren since the start of the season manifested again at the worst moment.
Piastri struggles to exploit the soft tires
The sprint qualifying format forces drivers to use medium tires in SQ1 and SQ2 before switching to softs in SQ3. A compound change that did not bring Piastri the expected performance gain.
“The lap on softs wasn’t as good and I feel like that has often been the case this year: when we put on the soft tires, the car’s balance isn’t as nice as with the mediums” he explains.
His teammate Lando Norris made a similar observation. The Briton had outpaced Russell during the phases run on mediums before losing the advantage when switching to softs.
Piastri thus finished less than a tenth off pole despite a last lap he considers imperfect.
Significant progress since free practice
The Australian prefers to focus on the positive evolution recorded by McLaren throughout the day. Piastri was not satisfied with the behavior of his car during the only free practice session, prompting his team to change some settings before the sprint qualifying.
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Changes that paid off.
“When I compare with my situation during free practice, I am much more satisfied. We changed a few things and I felt significantly better. So that’s the positive point: the progress made since Friday morning.”
This improvement allowed him to get back in touch with the fastest drivers and even consider what might have been possible with a better execution in SQ3.
“It was very close and I feel that with a better lap, we might have been able to take pole. But I’m learning and improving, and that’s the most important.”
A very tight battle between three teams
The sprint qualifying mainly confirmed the closeness between Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari at Zandvoort.
Only 0.099 separates Russell from Piastri, fourth. Under these conditions, the slightest mistake or difficulty exploiting the tires can cost several positions.
“It’s going to be tight between us, Ferrari, and Mercedes. So we will have to manage to close those last small gaps and see what we can do” concludes Piastri.
McLaren thus seems to have the pace necessary to fight at the front, but will need to better exploit the soft tires if it wants to turn its potential into pole position during the Grand Prix qualifying.
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