Oscar Piastri kept his best for last, which was good for P3 on the timing screens at the end of Qualifying for the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, describing his weekend thus far as "messy" while teammate Lando Norris made a mess of his best effort.
"Messy" it might've been in his eyes, but Piastri did enough to head up row two. But his P3 hung in the balance thanks to an incident with Alpine's Pierre Gasly and was summoned for a chat with F1 Race Stewards, but the Australian rookie was not aware: "To be honest I haven’t seen it, so I need to go back and see it, let’s see what they say.”
He kept his position. Deservedly so as Piastri's final lap in Q3 time came out of the nowhere, as if he had built up to it from day one. The Australian rookie was 0.337s adrift of Max Verstappen's and a couple of tenths shy of Charles Leclerc in P2 at the end of the session at Yas Marina Circuit.
Piastri reported in the Yas Marina Parc Ferme: "I don’t think I had enough to change the result, so pretty happy with it. It’s been a pretty messy weekend for me, but I managed to almost get it all together when it mattered.
As for the race pace in the McLaren, which went AWOL last time out in Sao Paulo, Piastri admitted: "Very hard to know, no one’s really done any long-running, so difficult to know.
"I think we can be confident. It’s really unknown, but it’s probably the biggest unknown we’ve had going into the race this season, especially on a normal weekend so we’ll have to wait and see."
Piastri: I’m happy to be back in the top three
Reflecting in the team report later, Piastri added: "It was a difficult session. It’s been extremely tight this weekend. The pace was there, I just made a small mistake, but it would've had to have been quite a last corner to get on the front row.
"Overall, I'm happy with today, the car is very quick this weekend. It’s a nice turnaround from Vegas for the team and I’m happy to be back in the top three.
Looking to his 22nd Grand Prix, the last race of a sparkling rookie season, Piastri said: "I’m not sure how our race pace will be, but we’ll look into the data this evening. For everyone, it’s probably going to be the same story.
"I think the most anyone’s done is five laps in a row this weekend so its is going to be interesting. We’ll work hard to secure positive points to finish the season strong," concluded Piastri.
Had he been a tad more precise, Norris might've been on the front row, pole even as he had the better of his McLaren teammate until crunch time in Q3. A track limits violation cost him and he knew it.
Norris: It’s frustrating to come away with P5
In the McLaren report from Qualifying on Saturday at Yas Marina Circuit, Norris said: "A disappointing qualifying in the end for me. I don’t know if I should have been P1, but I definitely feel like I should be starting at least P2.
"The pace has been very strong in the car all weekend which is a positive. It’s frustrating to come away with P5 but I'll look to gain positions in the race to score good points for the team," concluded Norris.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella summed up: "A strong qualifying session here for the finale in Abu Dhabi. The car was competitive which allowed Lando and Oscar to fight for the top positions of the grid. Oscar gained confidence throughout the session, and he found his way to put the car in P3, which is a very good starting position for tomorrow’s race.
"On Lando’s side, it was there for pole position until the second to last corner, where unfortunately he had a large oversteer and lost a lot of lap time. Nevertheless, we are confident for the race and we look forward to finishing the season on a high," said Stella.
McLaren will be looking to consolidate P4 in the 2023 F1 Constructors' World Championship. They are more than 100 points behind Ferrari in p3, and 11 points ahead of Aston Martin who the Woking team will be looking to beat on Sunday.
Latest News
Loading
