After the first attempt in Q3, it still looked like a pole position for Oscar Piatri in Silverstone, but because Max Verstappen could take another shovel and did not improve Piatri, it was only enough for the World Cup leader to second, a tenth of a second behind.
Piatris Problem: He made his best round in the first attempt. “I was satisfied with the first round. To be honest, it was mega,” he says. “I thought about how I could drive faster – and didn’t make it.”
“I felt that the route improved a little with every run. So I thought that I would probably need a little more – and that was really the case,” says the Australian.
He gave up five thousandths of the first sector, six he lost in the second sector, so he went to the final sector with 0.001 seconds behind his own time – but there he was a tenth more slower than before.
“I think Oscar got a very strong round in the first attempt by Q3,” explains team boss Andrea Stella. “He himself said that he broke his head where he could still find time in the second attempt. He tried it in the second run, but he wasn’t really successful.”
Wind or damage?
Piatri himself says that his second round was “somewhat unclean”. “A few moments surprised me. I hate to blame the wind, but I have to look at whether it was because of it,” he says. “Maybe I just pushed too much in a few curves to make up for it again.”
However, Stella has another reason ready, because as he reveals, Piatri’s car is said to have been a little damaged – possibly by driving over the border stones at the outcome of Stowe 1 – which led to a loss of performance in aerodynamics.
“If you take into account that Oscar may have exaggerated a little in a few passages and that the aerodynamic efficiency also decreased by the damage, then he probably had no great chance in the second attempt to improve,” says Stella.
Satisfaction also with second place
“But even the lap time, the Lando [Norris] In the second attempt – and it was very, very close to Oscars – shows that our two drivers brought out the maximum out of the car today. Ultimately, both were satisfied with their driving performance, “said the Italian.
Piatri would agree to the statement: “Overall, I am quite satisfied with second place in the starting line -up and I’m looking forward to an exciting race,” says the Australian.
“We tried a lot this weekend to find a little more pace. The car felt mega all weekend, but there were a few moments when we asked ourselves why we are not faster. The team worked great to get back into the shape that we know. Tomorrow it will be an exciting race.”