Oscar Piastri described his pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix as a case of peak at the right time, after beating teammate Lando Norris with only 0.012S.
Norris had watched the marginal faster of the two McLaren drivers during the practice in Zandvoort, a song where he won on dominant fashion a year ago. However, when it came to the first Q3 runs, Piaastri set up the faster time and assured his fifth pole position of the season, because neither drivers could improve their last attempts.
- Report: Piastri runs tables on Norris to take the Dutch GP post
“That was the definition of peak at the right time,” said Piastri. “I think I felt pretty good all weekend, but it has just been a few corners that I couldn’t go faster. I didn’t really go in those corners faster, but I found a little more elsewhere!
“So super happy to come up with the result. Of course you still got all the points tomorrow, but it looked like a difficult weekend so far, so to come out with that, I’m pretty happy.
“You just keep chipping away and that is one of the fun things about so much practice – you have time to work on it. Like I said, I think I just improved the parts that I was not bad and made the difference in this way. Still a few things to try to improve and work, but in general very happy.”
Although he was defeated by Piastri, Norris was not too downbeat, pointing at a headwind in the well if he possibly took more time than his teammate.
“It feels in the first place in the first place, so I feel pretty good all weekend, always in a good stream here, which is important. Both rounds were good. I don’t think many people improved during their second runs, so I don’t know if the job became a little more difficult or slower in the second run, but both were quite close, I think, within the half tent or tenth position.
“It was also difficult with the wind. It can easily give you prefer or not prefer you. And hundredth is quite minimal. Even from the last corner I come up a bit and I lose as two hundredth by the time I go to the start-finish line and that has disappeared for me.
“There is not too much to complain about. I think there were a few places where I was not completely enough limit and today and this weekend consistently lost a bit too much lap time. So, some places and things I have to work on, but otherwise the laps were good, and I was still pretty happy.”
Norris had to overtake Max Verstappen a year ago on his way to the victory in Zandvoort, but says that this is a much greater order against Piastri, given their respective performance levels.
“I mean – no offense with Max – he was in a much slower car last year. So that helps a lot,” said Norris. “This year Oscar is in a much faster car and the most difficult man to catch up normally is your teammate, especially when in a qualify like today where we were split with hundredth.
“So it goes some magic, a good strategy or incredible tire saving or something like that. But it is normally quite difficult to catch up in the first place. It is even harder to do that behind your teammate. So I will see what I can dream of tonight.”
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