Oscar Piastri does not believe McLaren’s drivers will have the fight for pole position to themselves despite the team topping both practice sessions on Friday at Imola.
The winner of the last three grands prix headed second practice by two hundredths of a second from team mate Lando Norris. Max Verstappen and George Russell, their closest rivals in the championship, were fourth and fifth respectively behind Pierre Gasly.Piastri is sure it won’t be just the two MCL39s in the hunt for pole tomorrow. “At the moment I don’t think it’s just Lando and I,” he said. “I think there’s a few others that will join us in the fight tomorrow so we’ve got to keep our heads down and try and find a bit more.”
However he admitted he was “reasonably” pleased with the team’s pace during practice. “But I think there’s still some things we want to try and work on and improve,” he said.
“This wouldn’t be the first Friday where we’ve looked strong and then everyone’s found a bit more going into qualifying. So I think we still want to find a bit more but everything’s gone pretty smoothly. The car’s feeling decent still a few more things to tweak, but all in all, not bad.”
Verstappen took pole position for the last two grands prix. Piastri says the difficulty of overtaking at Imola will make this pole especially important.
“Saturday has been very important pretty much everywhere this year,” he said. “I think Imola is, regardless of what the rest of this year’s looked like, a place where qualifying means a lot. That is going to be important.”
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McLaren dominated the Miami Grand Prix, where Piastri finished 37 seconds ahead of the team’s closest rival. However team principal Andrea Stella does not expect they will be able to replicate that performance at Imola.
“I think we are understanding the strengths of the MCL39, which overall is a competitive car, but in some conditions it seems to have a certain advantage over the rest of the field,” he said. “These conditions materialised very well in Miami with the track layout, the speed range, the ambient temperatures.
“But we know very well that in some other kinds of circuits like in Saudi or Japan, it’s a different story. Everything gets quite a lot tighter.
“So, hopefully we will be able to retain this characteristic and this advantage over the course of the season. But I think this will require the car to be developed, to be upgraded, because we see that no one is waiting, no one is standing still. We see upgrades being brought trackside by our competitors.
“We do plan to upgrade the MCL39 and try and, if anything, possibly make the car even more suitable for a wider range of conditions and cornering speed.”
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2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
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An Sionnach
16th May 2025, 18:32
If Max, George and Co. have to consistently wring everything from their cars to get pole, they can’t do it every time, no matter how metronomic they are. Let’s see. McLaren drivers aren’t the only ones in the fight for pole – their engineers and the whole team are in it, too!
Riccard
16th May 2025, 20:04
The McLarens are clear favourites, and I suspect they’ll have the fastest “best sectors” laptime again… but Piastri’s right that if they make mistakes on their flying laps or drive too timidly, someone else will take advantage.
It’s the race pace that’s been a walkover, not quali.
Miane
16th May 2025, 20:33
Their run was at 65% throotle and the ideal lap for them is 0.6s faster than the rest. I don’t expect any other team to be in the fight.
Jonathan Parkin
16th May 2025, 21:06
This could potentially be McLaren’s first win at Imola since David Coulthard in 1998. A win for either Williams or Ferrari would give them the outright record of nine wins – both teams are currently tied on eight
Feuerdrache (@xenomorph91)
16th May 2025, 21:10
I’m looking forward to seeing the Mc and Laren drivers in the mix for pole as well!
Ferdi
17th May 2025, 6:38
Hahah, they found Toto’s sandbags. On a more serious note, usually everyone on this forum would now scream and schout about dominance and the season being over and more of that… but I guess it only happens with Max somehow. Lewis didn’t suffer much either from it for 8 years straight, so I guess the McLarens will be fine for a while too.
Leo B
17th May 2025, 9:37
Antonelli may spring a surprise! Watch out!
Grapmg
17th May 2025, 11:09
The only way I can see an other car on pole is when both the McLaren drivers push each other too much and make mistakes in Q3. Isn’t that what we have seen three times this year already. It’s great McLaren let’s their drivers race don’t get me wrong but I guess they don’t have to push and still be both on the front row with a decent lap in Q3.