Piastri satisfied with his 2nd place at Monza: "There was no assurance of locking down the front row"

A 100% Orange front line in the land of the Reds! In the middle of an extremely tight and competitive plateau at the front, the McLaren took the top two places in qualifying at Monza. Just behind the poleman Lando Norris, Oscar piastri was just a tenth short of being able to upset his teammate's plans and secure his first pole position in Formula 1.

At the wheel of the very fast MCL38 in Italy, the Australian was on a par with his garage neighbour for a long time, but he lacked a little extra soul to beat Lando Norris at the top of his game at the moment. A little disappointed by his last lap in Q3, Oscar Piastri was still happy to start on the front row… and when you know how his teammate struggled at the start, he might be thinking that he has a good chance of finding himself in the lead at the exit of the first chicane.

Oscar Piastri (McLaren), 2nd in qualifying at Monza : “The first lap in Q3 was pretty good, but the second lap wasn’t good enough. I feel like I’ve said that a few times this year. It’s still a good performance and a great team effort. The field is incredibly tight this weekend, and that’s what I was saying on my radio, there was no guarantee of locking down the front row for us. It’s a great effort to pull that off.”

“Starting a bit higher up the grid than last week [at Zandvoort] is a positive for me. There is a long way to go before the first corner, so starting from P2 here is not a bad thing. Let’s see how the tyres behave [on Sunday], it’s a bit different to what we’re used to here at Monza. It could be quite an interesting race and with so much competition at the front it will be very exciting.”

ALSO READ > Lando Norris takes pole and hits big, Max Verstappen in trouble