Oscar Piastri secured the second pole position of his career in Bahrain. After a series of extremely dominant free practice sessions, the Australian clocked the fastest time again during qualifying. His teammate, Lando Norris, who should have been on the front row given the speed of his McLaren, ended up in P6. Did Piastri deliver a mental blow to Norris?
An emotional Lando Norris spoke to the press after qualifying. The Brit regretted his failed session and doubted his own abilities: “It felt like I had never driven a Formula 1 car before,” he said despondently. During the official FIA press conference, Piastri was asked about his rivalry with his teammate. How important is this pole position with regard to the championship? Heading into the main event, Norris leads the championship, although the gap to Piastri is only thirteen points.
“Let’s first see where he (Norris) ends up in the race,” said a smiling Piastri. “Of course, it’s nice to be on the front row, but this is probably the first qualifying session where pole position doesn’t say everything. I expect Norris to fight his way up during the race. We’ll see where he ends up.”
We Simply Have the Best Car
Piastri acknowledges that Norris, like him, has a highly competitive vehicle at his disposal. “We have no reason to be ashamed: at the moment, we simply have the best car,” he explained. “We would be lying if we tried to deny that. That being said, it remains challenging — the margins between the different cars are still very small. A minor mistake can already cost one or two tenths compared to the competition, and often that’s just the lead we have.”
“Sometimes we look very strong — take for example the recent free practice,” Piastri elaborated. “But during the qualification, everyone revs up their engines and we really have to hold our own. In Japan, we couldn’t get everything out of the car and were outperformed by Max Verstappen, and today Norris is not on the front row of the grid. We have a lead, but we need to utilize it every weekend.”
