McLaren’s drivers expected close competition with the Italian Grand Prix, but admitted that Max Verstappen was not the predicted main threat that the race weekend was on their way.
Verstappen took pole position after being the fastest on both the first and the second runs of Q3, and earned his fourth pole of the year. It is only his second since Saudi Aarabia, but also marks an important change compared to a year ago when Red Bull struggled badly, and Oscar Piastri says he thought that Ferrari might be the biggest challenger.
“I don’t think it’s a big surprise that it is much closer here,” said Piastri after qualifying third. “Was Max at the top of my list of our competitors who entered this weekend? I thought Ferrari might be closer, but that was based last year.
“In general, when the competition is nearby, Max normally has been the one closest, so I don’t think it’s a huge surprise, but compared to last year it is a bit.”
Lando Norris defeated Piastri to the second, but was placed on the last laps by Verstappen and says that it should not be a big surprise that the defending champion can be a threat, even if Monza was not predicted as a strong Red Bull Track.
“If you look at earlier races, even if we have been incredible … there has been enough where Max has defeated us in a few races this season,” said Norris. “He qualified this season in many races. Even last weekend’s Q3 … It was not as if the holes were huge; everyone was quite close.
“We come to a song, we lose a tenth, he wins a tenth, and that is the difference. I would not say it is a surprise. The real surprise is compared with last year.
“At the same time, when you have a strong team that has won for many years, the drivers and just a strong team in general, you expect them to improve as they did last year and also from their difficulties at the beginning of the season to where they are now. No surprise, but to improve where they were here last year, is credit for them.”
With Norris who is looking for entering Piastri’s championship leader, he is hopeful that McLaren will have an advantage in terms of racepempo, but says that Saturday’s qualifying session offers a warning that the improvements of Red Bull can translate into Sunday’s performance.
“I certainly want to expect that,” he said. “Everyone knows that our racing pace is probably a greater force than our qualification rate. We have often proven that, but they have improved a lot compared to last year.
“I think we’ll be coming during the weekend, we probably did not expect the Red Bull to be so good. As soon as we did the first few runs, it was clear that they took a number of good steps compared to last season, so we will see. His racet ppo was good on Friday. It was not too uneven to ours, so the time will tell.”
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