Advantage Oscar: Piastri pips Norris for Dutch GP pole
Ian Chadband |
Oscar Piastri has put himself in great shape to win the Dutch Grand Prix and increase his F1 world championship lead after turning the tables on McLaren teammate Lando Norris to snatch pole in a thrilling qualifying shootout at Zandvoort.
The Australian had been in his English rival’s shadow all weekend but, not for the first time, found his best when he needed on Saturday afternoon, pulling out a brilliant lap record with his first run in Q3 that edged Norris by 12 thousandths of a second.
It could prove a critical advantage for Piastri on the seaside track where the polesitter has won in the four editions since Zandvoort returned to the program.
“That was the definition of peaking at the right time,” enthused the ever cool Piastri, still not getting too excited after his new circuit landmark of one minute 08.662 seconds.
“It was looking like a tricky weekend so to come out with that, I’m pretty stoked.
Piastri had also set the pace in the first section of qualifying after Norris had dominated practice, going fastest in both of Friday’s sessions and also on Saturday morning.
But the Melbourne ace, celebrating his fifth pole of the season but only his first since the Spanish GP at the start of June, reckoned he had “chipped away” with improvement all weekend.
Neither driver was able to improve on their first efforts in Q3 with their final runs, with only four-thousandths of a second separating them over their last circuits.
“Just four milliseconds – they’ve been very, very close throughout,” said thrilled McLaren principal Andrea Stella.
“Both deserved the pole but only one can have it and it was Oscar today – well done to Oscar. He’s a ‘build-up driver’, builds through the weekend and that’s what he did again, but he’s also very capable of delivering when it is the time to do so.”
Piastri leads Norris by nine points and Sunday’s race now shapes as a glorious chance for him to open up the advantage again after Norris had closed the gap with wins in three of the last four races.
Asked if he felt he could beat last year’s Dutch winner Norris off the line in the critical opening exchanges, Piastri smiled: “I hope so.
“We both had terrible starts here last year. I prefer we both get good starts this time but if I can hold the lead, then that would make life a lot easier, for sure.”
Norris, for his part, knows the odds are now against him if he’s to prevail on a track with few overtaking opportunities.
“It’s going to take some magic, some good strategy or incredible tyre-saving or something. But it’s normally pretty difficult to overtake in the first place and even harder to do that behind your teammate,” sighed Norris.
He might also be helped by the forecast rain, the seaside wind that caused problems for all the drivers on Saturday, or McLaren’s pit-stop strategy which came to his aid last time out to help him win in Hungary.
Defending champion Max Verstappen will start in third spot on the grid for his home race, and there was a brilliant, surprising effort from French rookie Isack Hadjar in his Racing Bull as he finished fourth.
George Russell was fifth for Mercedes and Charles Leclerc, who was startled by a fox crossing the track in Q2, sixth for Ferrari with his seven-time world champion teammate Lewis Hamilton seventh.
AAP
