Even without a slipstream, Piastri takes pole at Imola

That's what you call being sure of your strengths! Oscar piastri wasn't entirely thrilled with his team's decision to send him out first for a final attempt at Q3. As the Imola straight is so long, slipstreaming can play a significant role. However, the championship leader didn't need any outside help to secure his third pole position in Formula 1, all acquired during a 2025 season which begins like a dream for the Australian driver.

“I wasn't thrilled to be first on track, to be honest, but I already had a big gap to the others around me from the previous run, so it wasn't that different. Of course, you don't have the slipstream being first, but you also don't have any turbulence. I think that helped me a little bit. That's what we decided to do, I think we have enough pace to allow us to do that and put in our performance on our own.”

As he sets off with Max Verstappen At his side, Oscar Piastri appeared resolutely satisfied with his car. In great form since the start of the season, the Perth native continues to refine his settings and his feel behind the wheel of his MCL39. Despite the soft tires struggling to keep the distance on the flying lap, Piastri managed to keep just enough performance in his tires to beat Max Verstappen by just 34 thousandths on the line.

“It was a good session for us, even if it was quite difficult. All the delays, the red flags, didn't help, and neither did the tires. They were difficult to understand today; on Friday everyone imagined that the soft tires weren't bad, while in qualifying they were a real mystery. The team did a good job to put the car in a good operating window; we tried a few things this weekend. We managed to make some good adjustments for qualifying. I'm very happy with the work we've done, and I'm looking forward to Sunday.”

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