WM favorite Oscar Piatri starts the great price of Italy from the third position, its weak qualifying result since this year’s Austria GP in June. What went wrong with the McLaren pilot? “Nothing big,” emphasizes the Australian.
“The first curve was a bit average, but the rest of the round felt pretty clean,” Piatri sums up the crazy Monza qualifying. “I have the feeling that I drove a pretty good session at the beginning and found my rhythm.”
“I have the feeling that Q1 was a bit difficult, but then I was pretty satisfied in Q2 and Q3. It was a solid round.” In the end, Piatri was missing 0.113 seconds on teammate Norris and 0.190 seconds on the pole time of Max Verstappen.
“It was clear to us anyway that the competition is much closer this weekend, and also with some unexpected teams and cars. So it is not a big surprise for us, but I have the feeling that I managed it pretty well.”
Quality result is “not a big surprise”
The McLaren pilot believes that it has “had good and clean rounds that improved with every round”. “There are a few curves that I would probably like to drive again. But it is rare to leave qualifying without having this feeling. So I’m pretty satisfied.”
Ultimately, in the end “just a little missing”. Max Verstappen and Red Bull in particular were strong on Saturday, emphasizes Piatri. “To be honest, many teams looked quick. It wasn’t quite as comfortable for us.”
“The result is not a big surprise, but of course I would have liked to be a bit further ahead,” admits the 24-year-old. Even the big lead in the driver World Cup does not change anything. “If you are around the group, you go on it and try to get the poles.”
“You don’t know what the others can do,” explains Piatri, who always drives “fully at the limit” in qualifying, because the path to the World Cup title is still a long time. “And tomorrow I will try to make up for a few places because I want to get a few more victories when possible.”
Oscar Piatri remains “pretty confident”
Piatri is not worried that Lando Norris was faster on Friday in the Longrun. “I think it was just a bit more difficult for us overall,” says the McLaren pilot. “Of course I also missed FP1, so that was my first Longrun.”
In the first training session he had to clear his cockpit for Alex Dunne. Was that possibly a disadvantage? “It is always difficult to know how much it costs, but it is definitely nothing that you would choose,” admits the Australian.
“Of course it is in the regulations, but I think there are worse routes to miss an FP1. So I don’t want to push too much on it.” But: Teammate Norris also missed training in Austria, and still got the pole and victory.
It didn’t work for Piatri with the Pole in Monza, but the World Cup leader still has the victory in mind. In the race it can be “always very different”, the Australian alludes to the Longrun results of Friday. “So I’m pretty confident.”