In a hard-fought battle for pole position between the McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri emerged as the victor in Qualifying for the F1 Dutch GP.
McLaren once again emerged as the team to beat when Formula 1 returned to the track after the summer break.
Throughout the practice sessions for the F1 Dutch GP, it looked like Norris had a slight edge over his championship-leading teammate, making him the favorite for pole position.
However, in Qualifying for the Dutch GP, Piastri was much closer, even setting the fastest time in Q1 while being behind Norris in Q2.
On his first run in Q3, Piastri snatched provisional pole, only 0.012s separating him from his McLaren teammate.
Neither improved on their final run, leading to the Australian claiming his fifth pole position by a small margin.
Piastri on his pole lap
In the Top 3 press conference after Qualifying for the F1 Dutch GP, Piastri was satisfied with his lap, which he felt was a ‘good improvement’ from his previous showings this weekend.
“It felt pretty good.
“You know, not perfect, but I think with the wind being so strong, there are some places that are never going to feel perfect.
“So, it felt good and a good improvement from pretty much every other lap I did this weekend.
“So, it was nice to be able to pull it out then.
“But yeah, it took a lot of hard work, some patience in trying to find the time, and eventually I got there.”
Hard work ahead of Qualifying
Trailing behind Norris during the F1 Dutch GP practice sessions, Piastri had to work hard to find performance ahead of Qualifying.
McLaren made small adjustments to the car, but in the end, the Australian reckons that having several attempts and more tyre sets available in Qualifying was key, which ultimately allowed him to nail his lap.
“You know, little tweaks here and there, but I think just trying to — I think in qualifying when you get a few more goes at it, a few more sets, naturally it’s a little bit easier to find a little bit more.
“Obviously, the pressure is much higher than in practice.
“But yeah, just felt like this weekend took a lot of attempts to try and improve in some places, and eventually it was just enough attempts.
“So yeah, just trying to drive faster, essentially.
McLaren helped Piastri improve his performance
Asked about whether he was sure that he would be in the running for pole position in the Dutch GP Qualifying, Piasti responded that he was from FP1 onwards.
The polesitter pointed to the strong pace McLaren has shown this weekend as the reason for his belief.
Piastri also had praise for his McLaren team, who helped him get the car into a position that allowed him to extract the performance needed to claim pole position in Qualifying.
“Yeah, definitely.
“But I knew that from FP1.
“I think the pace this weekend has been very strong.
“FP3 seemed very, very strong, and I knew that the car wasn’t the problem.
“It was just that it was taking me a while to improve in some places.
“So yeah, the team’s done a great job, in firstly putting the car in a good place for me and also helping me improve myself.
Expectations for the F1 Dutch GP
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s race, Piastri wasn’t sure what to expect as tyre strategies appear to be varying across the grid.
McLaren has two new sets of the medium and hard compound tyres available for the Dutch GP, which could prove advantageous, considering most other teams have only one set of each left.
“I don’t know yet.
“The tyre strategies from everyone are a bit different.
“I think us two are one of the only teams to have two hards and a medium.
“I think pretty much everyone else has just one hard and one medium.
“So, we’ve got that kind of up our sleeve, but it also kind of tells you a little bit of what most people are thinking, I guess.
“So, we’ll wait and see, but we’ve got some options available.”
