Piastri’s pole-winning milestone comes at the right time
The Chinese Grand Prix weekend has been a brilliant example of just how competitive this season could prove to be, if we look at the two grids that have been set during the Sprint event. On Friday,…
The Chinese Grand Prix weekend has been a brilliant example of just how competitive this season could prove to be, if we look at the two grids that have been set during the Sprint event.
On Friday, the front row consisted of a Ferrari (Lewis Hamilton) and a Red Bull (Max Verstappen), and the pair would go on to finish first and third respectively in the Sprint.
Come Saturday afternoon, it was two totally different teams securing the top two positions with McLaren (Oscar Piastri) on pole and Mercedes (George Russell) in second.
And for Piastri, the timing couldn’t have been much better. It was his first grand prix pole position, having only previously set the fastest time in a Sprint qualifying session, and it gives him a great chance at bouncing back from his disappointment from Melbourne.
Leaving his home race, where the remarkable record of no Australian having secured a podium finish — let alone a win — continued, Piastri was some 23 points adrift of teammate Lando Norris in the drivers’ championship. Early days it may be, but that was a big buffer for Norris to open up over what could well be his biggest title rival.
Although the two McLaren drivers are expected to take points off each other, the likelihood is there will be an earlier call made to back one over the other this season, should there be any other contenders. So establishing a lead early on could be particularly important, and Piastri took the first steps to reducing that with his second place in the Sprint.
Now 17 points back, Piastri then carried that momentum into qualifying, where he ticked off a first that has been a long time coming, even if it didn’t feel like a glaring omission from his résumé given his performances in Sprint qualifying in the past.
“It means a lot,” Piastri said. “I’ve been close a few times now and it’s nice to finally have my first pole. I’ve had a couple of Sprint poles, but to have the first grand prix pole means a bit more. So yeah, pretty pumped.
“I’ve worked hard for it and I feel like the start of the season has been strong. Obviously the result in Melbourne was a shame, but I feel like I’ve been doing a good job otherwise and just happy to have ended up on pole.”
It’s hard to argue against Piastri’s point. He was bettered by Norris in qualifying in Australia but was a true threat for victory until both went off track on slick tires as rain fell, and he described it as his only mistake of the weekend, but one that had a much bigger impact than his teammate’s.
Now he has outqualified Norris in both sessions in China, while he also did a solid job to clear Verstappen and pick up seven of the maximum eight points on offer in the Sprint.
Piastri fought back strongly in the Sprint, but didn’t have enough left to challenge Hamilton for the win. Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Piastri’s pole position is all the more crucial given the importance of track position in Shanghai — as was evidenced by Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Sprint and how he could pull away from the McLaren in the closing stages. Being behind Verstappen and using more of his tires to get past the Red Bull hurt Piastri that little bit more and left him with little usable rubber in the final laps.
“I think just making sure your tires survive is the biggest thing,” Piastri said. “I think we saw this morning that those that could… I would say look after their tires, but that wasn’t even really true — the people that could manage the best one way or another were the quickest.
“For my own Sprint I felt like I did a reasonable job, it was just difficult trying to get past Max. But I think we saw with Lewis being out in front all morning, it probably helped him in the long run.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty interesting race. It’s the most deg we’ve probably seen and the most graining we’ve seen in a long time. So it’ll be interesting to see if it stays the same tomorrow.”
Piastri faces multiple threats, including from Russell and Verstappen, and we’ll get stuck into how the season is shaping up for Verstappen to do something particularly special after this weekend. But perhaps the biggest challenge is likely to come from his teammate, who appreciates just how hard it is for McLaren to exploit its obvious pace with regularity.
“We’ve said it many times — it’s definitely the quickest car, but it’s still tricky to drive,” Norris said. “We can easily do good sectors every now and then but putting a lap together — like Oscar said, he was two-tenths down and then he’s kind of going for it and it stuck. But it seems just tricky to understand how to do it consistently enough.
“When you do that kind of good job, then it can easily be the quickest car. So a couple of things [to work on] and just more my driving — that rhythm of knowing exactly what to do where, how much. Also, if you push a bit too much, the tires can bite quite quickly too.
“So. many different things, but it’s also just that Oscar’s done a good job and I’ve not done a perfect job. It’s tight, so I just paid the price for not doing well enough.”
All of those factors show where the McLaren drivers are being tested, but if he can tame them then Piastri will have a golden opportunity to bounce back from his Melbourne disappointment in style, provided he can retain his advantage off the line.
And yet, either Verstappen (two points adrift of Norris) or Russell (six points back) could realistically end up leading the championship after this weekend, even with a Piastri victory. The McLaren driver battle is far from the only one to look out for.
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