Oscar Piastri will line up fifth on the grid for the 2025 F1 Las Vegas GP, after a disappointing end of the session for the Australian, compromised by a late yellow flag in his final run in Q3, which meant he had to abort what was set to be his personal best time.
The wet conditions meant the already low-grip street circuit became even more of challenge for the drivers, but Piastri seemed to have found his groove in the McLaren and was trading fastest times with his team-mate and title rival Lando Norris for most of the qualifying hour.
“Frustrating end” to a session which he was “quick”
Speaking in the print media after the session, the Australian lamented a “frustrating end” to what was a positive qualifying in which he and the car were “quick“. Late yellow flags for Charles Leclerc’s brief off at turn 12 meant Piastri, who trails his McLaren team-mate and F1 championship rival by 24 points ahead of the Las Vegas GP, had to abort his lap completely:
“I mean, very tricky conditions. I think in Q1 I felt very good. Q2, a few little wobbles. But in Q3, I felt good again. And it looked like things were coming to us pretty nicely,” he said. “But unfortunately, not much you can do with the yellow flag. Frustrating end to the session, obviously, but I think the car and myself were quick. So we’ve got some pace for [the race], which is nice.“
Why he aborted his final run
When asked why he decided to completely abandon his lap instead of slowing down through that particular section and carrying on, Piastri explained that the blind nature of the exit of turn 12 meant he had to be extra cautious to avoid a possible “big risk” in trying to “game the system“:
“I mean, it’s a massive guessing game, especially in these conditions where you’re improving. It’s tough, and then obviously where I saw the yellow flag, it’s a blind corner. So I don’t know if there’s a car stopped somewhere that I’m going to have to do something suddenly.
“Your natural reaction is to slow down, obviously. And there’s obviously a lot of risk involved in trying to game the system and lose enough time without [abandoning the lap].
“But I think I couldn’t have really done much. And if I had tried to keep pushing, it would have been a pretty big risk.”
The explanation behind the close call with Hadjar
At that same moment, there was a somewhat bizarre moment as Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bulls seemed to be launching down the inside of the McLaren, with both cars then off the ideal line and massively struggling for grip, despite the low-speed they were running. That meant Hadjar had a big snap of oversteer heading into turn 12, whilst Piastri had to take to the escape road to avoid him.
Piastri explained that he “saw him coming“, but such was the nature of the track conditions in qualifying for the F1 Las Vegas GP, and the fact he had already aborted his run, meant it was a “secondary” thought in that moment, with the grip conditions requiring a trip down the run-off area was the safest option:
“I saw [Hadjar] coming,” said Piastri. “I obviously slowed down for the yellow. It was a very quick yellow, so by the time I’d slowed down, maybe it wasn’t out for him.
“But I think he kind of saw he was catching the back of me and then went off the line to try and pass me, and it’s like ice off the line.
“So for me, that was a very secondary thing to already aborting the lap.”
Las Vegas track “incredibly slippery” in the wet
Expanding on the low-grip nature of the circuit in those difficult conditions, the Australian explained that even though he didn’t take part in the 2020 Turkish GP, the conditions seemed similar to those witnessed by the drivers in Istanbul five years ago, comparing it to an “ice rink” that had him struggling for traction even in the higher gears:
“I obviously never drove in Turkey that year that was like an ice rink,” he said. “But it was incredibly slippery. Wheel spinning in fifth or even sixth gear, is not something I’m very used to. So it’s very tricky out there.
“And especially off the line, that was the difficulty with the inters. As soon as you put a – not even a wheel – one tread block into the water, it was literally like being on ice.
“When I had to avoid Isack [Hadjar] at the end, we weren’t even going fast, but you just hit the water and it was done, basically. Very, very low grip.
“The last corner as well, that’s a proper corner [in the wet], with no margin for error. Very tricky, obviously, there’s not much you can do about it being a street circuit, but I would say, yeah, the most challenging conditions I’ve had [in my career].”
The McLaren F1 driver even compared it to “tram tracks” such was the difficulty of recovering:
“We obviously saw how many people locked up and kind of had to go straight off at the start of Q1, so it was really tricky there,” he said. “It was pretty much tram tracks, so as soon as you were a tiny bit out of those tram tracks, either to the left or the right, it was [over].”
Norris’ pole “complicates” title chances
With his main rival for the championship starting on pole position for the third grand prix in a row, Piastri – who’s last pole was all the way back in Zandvoort – knows it “complicates” his quest for the world title, but is wary that “a lot can happen” in the race and hopes to make up spots with the pace he’s shown so far this weekend:
“Yes, it does,” he said when asked if Norris’ latest pole complicates his title chances. “But it’s Las Vegas after all, so a lot can happen. We’ve seen pretty entertaining races here the last couple of years, a lot of action, so hopefully I can get myself involved on the right side of that action and make up some ground tomorrow.”
“Pretty quick” McLaren in all conditions should bode well for the race
With limited running throughout the whole weekend due to weather and manhole cover disruptions, Piastri is unsure on just how the pecking order will stack up come Sunday’s F1 Las Vegas GP, but is hopeful that the pace shown so far in both dry and wet conditions will be enough to propel him up the order, regardless of the weather on race day:
“It’s difficult to know exactly where anyone sits because of the kind of lack of proper race running this weekend,” he added. “But I think the car’s been pretty quick in all conditions. It was quick in the rain today, it was quick in the dry yesterday. Yesterday the same, similar thing, we didn’t get many opportunities to use [the pace]. So I think we’ve got a good pace and hopefully we can use that to go forward tomorrow.”
What happened with the social media incident
In a somewhat minor and weird occurrence, it was noted by some fans on social media that Piastri had reposted on his Instagram a quote from F1’s former supremo Bernie Ecclestone, which claimed McLaren were supposedly favouring Norris in the title fight.
When asked about it after qualifying, Piastri downplayed the situation, and explained it was “obviously not intentional“:
“I don’t know. I woke up this morning and saw it, so I don’t know, maybe I accidentally did it. Obviously not intentional, and I didn’t know what had happened.”
