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 closing observe earlier on Saturday, was simply 0.026 seconds off Leclerc in Q3, whereas Norris topped each of Friday’s observe periods.
Because the clouds drew in and wind picked up between Q2 and Q3, altering situations noticed the automobiles carry out in another way within the closing shootout for pole place with the McLaren drivers unable to enhance their laptimes.
Requested by reporters sum up the qualifying session, Piastri mentioned: “Relies upon the place you are sat. When you’re sat the place Charles is, improbable. When you’re sat the place I am sat, weird and considerably irritating.
“However yeah, I imply, I feel the situations utterly 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 type of with the wind path from the primary two periods 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 have to look again and see what variations it made. Issues positively felt extra tough for myself as nicely in Q3, however I feel for everyone it could 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, comparable limits, and simply felt fairly dreadful. Similar issues.
“I wasn’t shocked that I used to be a 1:15.4 within the first run. However within the second lap, it is simply exhausting to know the way way 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 comparable factor.
“The wind has such huge results on the automotive whenever you’re driving. It is fairly straightforward for it to be half a second swing. So yeah, irritating as a result of we positively appear to have a very good hole, however in Q3 it appeared to float away from us as a workforce greater than it did for others.”
Second on the grid might maybe work in Piastri’s favour, as he took his maiden Components 1 victory finally yr’s Hungarian Grand Prix from second on the grid on the Hungaroring.
Looking forward to Sunday’s race — the final grand prix earlier than the August break — he mentioned he was feeling “fairly assured.
“It was good final yr, so hopefully it may be good once more this yr. However yeah, like Charles mentioned, there’s some rain round. We’ll see if that impacts the race. However I feel our tempo has been good, however Charles has been fast all weekend, in sure periods.
“It’s a very tough observe to overhaul on, and it is not going to be the simplest place to try to regain the lead,” he added.
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