WM leader Oscar Piatri has conquered the important pole position at the Grand Prix of Spain and thus showed a strong reaction in the narrow McLaren duel.
The Australian was two tenths of a second faster than his English team -mate Lando Norris in qualifying at the gates of Barcelona on Saturday – he had approved some ground on Piatri in the past two races. For Piatri it is already the fourth pole this year. The two rivals still separate only three World Cup points, in the ninth season race on Sunday (from 3 p.m. in the live ticker of the sports show) Piatri can now expand his lead again.
The McLaren duo was also unimpressed by the new and tightened guidelines to the front wings of the racing cars. Since this Grand Prix, stricter rules and controls have come into force due to the front wings, which are now even less bending. This results in more air resistance, which on the one hand affects speed, but also the balance of the car and thus the tire wear.
“The car was mega,” Piatri praised after the co-excretion on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya: “The round was not perfect, but I’m glad I got it together.”
Others found Piatris final attempt. “I think that was one of the moments you remember to have experienced one of the best shootouts for a pole position,” enthused ex-formula 1 pilot David Coulthard. And also Norris, still overjoyed on Saturday last week over his own pole in Monaco, respected: “Oscar drove a lot.” On the other hand, he made a few small mistakes.
Not good qualifying for Hülkenberg
Third place will start world champion Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. The four -time champion already won the race in Spain four times, most recently three times in a row. In addition to the 27 -year -old Dutch, who had been talking to football star Robert Lewandowski from FC Barcelona before qualifying, George Russell will start in Mercedes.
Lewandowski (left) before qualifying at the Red Bull racing team
Nico Hülkenberg in the Sauber failed in the first round and did not come beyond 16th place. Also remarkable: Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda disappointed again and became the last.
Pole particularly important in Barcelona
Statistically speaking, the pole position in Barcelona is as important as on hardly any other route. A good 70 percent of the victories since 1991 have been won here from the first place to start – in Monaco, for example, just under 50 percent.
The struggle for this advantage was now a fairly exclusive matter of McLaren, the opposite had actually hoped for the opposite in Barcelona: the World Association had introduced a stricter rule for the front wings, which could have scratched the superiority of the McLaren. So far this has not been observed.
There was a McLaren victory in Barcelona 20 years ago: in 2005 Kimi won Raikkonen.