McLaren’s drivers reacted differently to their qualifying performances in Melbourne. The pair qualified in the top six and were later promoted one position each.
Oscar Piastri originally qualified sixth for his home race. Before Sergio Perez’s penalty promoted him to fifth, Piastri said he had “mixed emotions” about his result.“Q1 and Q2 looked really strong and then in Q3 I just didn’t make it happen,” he told the official F1 channel. “A couple of messy laps, which is a bit frustrating, but I don’t think we’re massively out of position. A bit frustrated with my own performance.”
His team mate Lando Norris ended Q3 in fourth but will move up into the third place Perez originally occupied. Norris didn’t think he would qualify as high as the second row after practice.
“It’s probably better than I was expecting, honestly,” he said. “For two Ferraris, two Red Bulls, I probably I didn’t expect to be ahead of one of them. It was Charles [Leclerc], so probably even more of a surprise.
“But I’m happy with today. I feel like I’ve [not] done that well this weekend. I struggled to put things together and just to get comfortable with the car, knowing how to push on it.
“Normally when I feel like I push it goes the opposite way of what I want. So it’s something I’m still struggling with, I would say, and I’ve struggled with a bit this season.
“As soon as I got a little bit more comfortable like now, through qualifying especially, I felt like I could just unlock more from what I wanted and I could kind of control the car better. As soon as I do that, I feel like I can get a lot more lap time out of it. But it’s just very difficult to do that.”
While the pair will now start inside the top five, Piastri is unsure how competitive they will be in over a race distance against Red Bull and Ferrari.
“Going after them is going to be tough, to be honest. I think Ferrari have looked incredibly strong all weekend. Red Bull looked a little bit shaky yesterday but I don’t think anyone’s that surprised that Max is on pole.
“It’s going to be tough to challenge those guys, but I think that’s just where we’re at at the moment. So if we can, as much as I hate to say it, finish where we start, then that would honestly look like a decent result for us.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2024 Australian Grand Prix
- Alonso calls Australian GP penalty a ‘one-off I’ve had too many of’
- Red Bull saw warning sign of Australian GP brake problem on Saturday – Verstappen
- Failing to punish Alonso would have “opened a can of worms” – Russell
- Leclerc sure “many team principals” are pursuing Sainz for 2025 seat
- “Don’t put me under pressure” – The best unheard team radio from Melbourne
