Oscar Piastri mentioned qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix was “weird and considerably irritating” as rival Charles Leclerc took a shock pole place, leaving him behind in second place and Lando Norris in third.
Championship chief Piastri, who was quickest in final practice earlier on Saturday, was simply 0.026 seconds off Leclerc in Q3, whereas Norris topped both of Friday’s follow classes.
Because the clouds drew in and wind picked up between Q2 and Q3, altering situations noticed the vehicles carry out in another way within the last shootout for pole place with the McLaren drivers unable to enhance their lap occasions.
Requested by reporters methods to sum up the qualifying session, Piastri mentioned: “Relies upon the place you are sat. If you happen to’re sat the place Charles is, incredible. If you happen to’re sat the place I am sat, weird and considerably irritating.
“However yeah, I imply, I believe the situations fully modified, and it was simply bizarre. My first lap felt horrible as a result of I used to be pushing an excessive amount of and sort of with the wind route from the primary two classes in thoughts. So, then I felt like I did a greater job on the second lap of managing expectations, and it was even worse.
“So yeah, a weird session, however I must look again and see what variations it made. Issues undoubtedly felt extra tough for myself as nicely in Q3, however I believe for everyone it will have been tough. In order that’s not our excuse.”
When the identical query was put to Norris, who begins on the second row subsequent to fourth-place George Russell, he mentioned: “I will simply copy and paste, yeah. Precisely the identical.
“Q2 felt superb, felt assured to enhance. So, into Q3, aiming for the same lap time, related limits, and simply felt fairly dreadful. Identical issues.
“I wasn’t stunned that I used to be a 1:15.4 within the first run. However within the second lap, it is simply onerous to know the way rather more to push or not push. And I used to be like, oh, it is a significantly better lap, and I used to be 1:15.4 once more. So simply related factor.
“The wind has such massive results on the automobile whenever you’re driving. It is fairly straightforward for it to be half a second swing. So yeah, irritating as a result of we undoubtedly appear to have an excellent hole, however in Q3 it appeared to float away from us as a staff greater than it did for others.”
Second on the grid might maybe work in Piastri’s favor, as he took his maiden Formulation 1 victory eventually 12 months’s Hungarian Grand Prix from second on the grid on the Hungaroring.
Waiting for Sunday’s race — the final grand prix earlier than the August break — he mentioned he was feeling “fairly assured.
“It was good final 12 months, so hopefully it may be good once more this 12 months. However yeah, like Charles mentioned, there’s some rain round. We’ll see if that impacts the race. However I believe our tempo has been good, however Charles has been fast all weekend, in sure classes.
“It’s a very tough observe to overhaul on, and it is not going to be the best place to attempt to regain the lead,” he added.
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