Oscar Piastri admitted “I wish this qualifying was for Sunday” after claiming second place on the grid for the sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps.
The McLaren driver came close to taking pole position for the afternoon’s sprint race, falling short of beating Max Verstappen by just 11 thousandths of a second.Piastri said he was “definitely proud” of his qualifying effort after securing a front row start in tricky, damp but drying conditions. “I don’t think there was too much more in that lap.
“In those conditions, it’s so easy to say there’s more left in it, but if you step a little bit too far you’re in the wall,” he told Sky.
“So of course there’s always places but I was very happy with it on the whole, proud to be on the front row. We saw how quick Max was yesterday so to get that close to him I think is good.”
Lance Stroll crashed at turn nine during Q2 when he made an early attempt to switch to slick tyres. Piastri said he almost did the same thing.
“It’s very tricky especially around here because you’ve basically got like five different levels of wetness across a lap so big,” he explained. “The first part of lap was quite dry and then turn five-six a bit wet and then turn nine is very, very wet.
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“Like we saw with Lance, if you miss it by five centimetres, not even, you’re in the wall. On my out-lap I actually nearly did the exact same thing. So it’s really, really tricky.
“We generate so much downforce and we have to put it all through the tyres. But when the tyres don’t do anything, you quickly skate off the track.”
However Piastri says he “really enjoys” damp conditions. “I’ve always enjoyed them my whole career. But when it’s in an F1 car you’ve got to be pretty sharp in your reflexes.”
He admitted feeling some disappointing at coming so close to beating Verstappen to pole position. “Of course it’s a bit frustrating, especially when it’s by 11 thousandths,” he said. “But I feel like I did a really good lap. I couldn’t have got much more out of that.”
Starting behind the pole winner can also bring an advantage at Spa-Francorchamps, which has a very long acceleration zone after the first corner.
“If there’s one track where you don’t want to be on pole, it’s probably here,” he said. “So hopefully we can stay in the tow to turn five and see what we can do.
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2023 Belgian Grand Prix
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