McLaren’s Oscar Piastri saw the positives of his first Canadian Grand Prix qualifying session despite crashing on Saturday.
The Australian hit the barrier in wet conditions in the opening stages of the third and final session having gone ninth in Montreal, but by virtue of a penalty for Carlos Sainz, he will start the race eighth on Sunday afternoon.
The collision caused a red flag which was followed by heavier rain, ultimately preventing anyone from improving on their previous best lap times. Team-mate Lando Norris will start the race seventh.
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While Piastri was slightly disappointed at his crash, he remained upbeat.
“I think overall [I’m] reasonably happy,” he said. “Obviously a shame to end the way it did but I’m not sure how much further up we could have got to be honest. So, not too disappointed.
“Obviously disappointed in myself for causing extra work for the mechanics and stuff so apologies to the team but to have both of us in Q3 again is really encouraging. And I really enjoyed my first quali session in Canada; it certainly threw everything it could at us.”
Neither McLaren car finished in the points in a tough afternoon in Barcelona a fortnight ago, and Piastri and Norris ended the dry second practice session 11th and 13th respectively on Friday.
In what are expected to be dry conditions in the race, Piastri is optimistic over his and Norris’ chances of remaining in the top 10.
“We’re certainly hoping it will be better,” explained Piastri. “We’ll see what the weather does tomorrow as well. I think our pace on Friday in the dry was pretty strong in all honesty so I think we can have a degree of confidence. Obviously we don’t want to overestimate ourselves too much but I think we can definitely try and fight for points.”
This weekend is the third time in 2023 that both McLaren drivers have started the grand prix in the top 10.
