McLaren’s Oscar Piastri secured his fourth F1 pole position of the season at the 2025 Spanish GP, and although he described it as the “best spot” to start the race, the Australian expects to face an “exciting” turn one given the long run down to the first corner.
Piastri beat his team-mate and championship rival Lando Norris to pole position in Spain with the biggest margin between first and second of the season so far, just over two tenths clear of the Briton.
Pushing too early in the lap cost Piastri “a little bit”
Speaking about this performance, Piastri explained how there is a balancing act between pushing his tyres in the first or the second half of the lap, in order to achieve the best possible lap time, a recurrent feature of the Spanish GP F1 circuit.
The Australian explained he probably “lost a bit” of time in the final sector of his eventual pole lap, and said he’d “slightly tweak” his approach if given another chance:
“It was pretty good,” he said of his lap. “I think Sector 1 in particular felt quite strong and halfway through Sector 2.
“The back end of the lap was a little bit trickier, and I’d actually lost a little bit of time.
“But I think here, if you use up your tires in the first half of the lap, the second half becomes very tough. So clearly, it was good enough, which is a great thing, obviously.
“The car’s been feeling really good today and I’ve been able to put in consistent laps, which has been nice and a bit of a contrast to yesterday. So, it’s been a good day.“
Paying the price for pushing in the first sector
“I knew I had some corners to tidy up in the first half of the lap, which I felt like I did a good job of,” Piastri said after securing McLaren’s second consecutive pole at the F1 Spanish GP. “And then, I don’t know, maybe I just got too excited for the second half of the lap or I don’t know. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Maybe it was just a lack of talent in the second half, but I think when you push the tyres like that and get everything out of them, there probably is a bit of a price to pay.
“Because the last sector, the corners are so slow and so long. So, if I was to do it again, maybe I’d tweak it slightly, but I don’t really care now.”
“Pretty confident” of getting pole after strong practice form
The championship leader said he expected other teams to be a bit closer to McLaren come qualifying, but admitted he always felt “pretty confident” about getting this pole position, following strong showings in the practice sessions earlier:
“I think it had been a good run through practice. FP2 felt strong this morning, and FP3 I felt pretty strong. So, I was pretty confident that was on the cards in quali.
“I obviously knew that Lando [Norris] was going to be quick, but I also thought that the others would get in the mix as well.
“So it was nice that we had a bit of a gap as a team. I always felt pretty confident that I could achieve this today, so I’m glad that we pulled it off.”
“Interesting” race lies ahead with strategy and tyre degradation
Looking ahead to Sunday’s grand prix, Piastri expects a “different” F1race compared to the standard one-stoppers we’ve become accostumed to in 2025, as tyre wear and strategy will play a key role in determining the outcome of the Spanish GP:
“I think trying to get a good start and keep the lead is a good idea probably,” he said. “But there’s going to be some strategy involved tomorrow.
“The long runs yesterday were pretty painful for everyone, I think. So, it’s going to be a different race to a lot of the races we’ve had this year.
“Hopefully, a bit different to last weekend [in Monaco]. I think it will be an interesting race still and it’s not as simple as take the lead at the start and cruise from there.
“It’s going to be a challenge to manage the tyres, timing your stops right. There’s going to be a lot going on.”
No team “coordinated” games in the first lap
Although McLaren locked out the front row for the F1 Spanish GP for the first time since 1998, Piastri doesn’t expect the team will try and coordinate something between the drivers to keep their common rivals behind, and instead says each driver will focus on themselves:
“I think when you try to coordinate stuff like that, it never pans out how you want it to,” he told Sky when asked about working with Norris to keep Verstappen and the rest behind. “I think we’ll probably defend for ourselves, and make sure we try to come out first and second.
“[I’m expecting] a race between everyone,” he added. “It’s a long run to turn one here, even if you don’t have a great start, you can still have a chance in turn one.
“Max [Verstappen] has got a tow from the start, from his grid box, so I’m sure he’ll be in there somewhere as well.
“I think it’s going to be an exciting turn one, probably.”
