Piastri: In the beginning I will try to create a gap

Oscar Piastri did not expect to be fastest in qualifying ahead of Saturday’s sprint, but in difficult conditions on a still slippery track he did the best job, reaffirming that he is a fast and talented driver.

Oscar Piastri: “I’m very satisfied, although I would prefer to wait about five minutes in case the results change! (laughs) I would like to wait for confirmation that I really won pole position. But if this is indeed the case, then we have good reason to rejoice.

I actually did a good lap and I saw on the screens along the track that Lando had made a mistake in the last corner. I don’t know what time he could have shown, but I’m happy with my result.

Some changes have been made to the runway, for example the runway boundaries have been changed in some places so that they are no longer visible from the cockpit, making it difficult to understand where the boundary was. This made the task a little more difficult, but everyone was in an equal position.

In the first two sessions of today’s qualifying I had quite serious problems, but in the final I was able to sort everything out and I also think the whole McLaren team did a great job.

Let’s see if we can hold this position and win the sprint, because Max Verstappen starts from third position, not far from me. Of course we will do everything we can, although the question is how the tires will behave. But in the beginning I will try to create a gap and we will see what happens.”