Oscar Piastri has revealed he considered aborting the lap that secured him a maiden pole position in Formula 1 at the Chinese Grand Prix up until a late improvement.
Piastri has been an F1 polesitter on two previous occasions, but both times saw him line up right at the front in a Sprint race rather than the main weekend encounter.
However, the Australian wasn’t to be denied in Shanghai as he pumped in two laps good enough in Q3 to beat Mercedes’ George Russell and team-mate Lando Norris.
Piastri expressed that the breakthrough meant even more amid the disappointment he sustained on home soil last weekend when a spin cost him a probable podium.
“Yeah, I mean, it means a lot,” Piastri told media including Motorsport Week. “I’ve been close a few times now and yeah, nice to finally have my first pole.
“I’ve had a couple of Sprint poles, but to have the first Grand Prix pole is, it means a bit more. So yeah, pretty pumped, to be honest.
“I’ve worked hard for it and I feel the start of the season has been strong.
“Just obviously the result in Melbourne was a shame, but I feel like I’ve been doing a good job otherwise and, yeah, just happy to have ended up on pole.”
Piastri revealed that he had contemplated abandoning his last attempt in Q3 when the delta showed that his opening two sectors were down on his initial benchmark.
But the decision to go deep on the brakes at the Turn 14 hairpin paid dividends as he recovered the time he had lost earlier in the lap to improve upon his track record.
“Yeah, my first lap was honestly better than my second lap, but just at the hairpin at the end of the straight, I lost a bit of time and didn’t do the best hairpin,” he said.
“And then the second lap, I was about two-tenths down on myself. So I kind of just went, why not send it into the hairpin?
“And I gained those two-tenths back and then found a little bit more in the last corner.
“So yeah, I honestly was, without that hairpin, I was tempted to box before that. So I’m pretty happy now that I didn’t, but I just did a good corner. That was all.”
Piastri hails improved McLaren execution
Piastri attributed McLaren’s improved result compared to Sprint Qualifying, where he was third, to better execution rather than unlocking more speed from the MCL39.
“I think our car was fast yesterday, the run plan we went for in Sprint qualifying, I don’t think was the best one in the end,” he added. “I think today we knew that.
“The session’s obviously a little bit longer, so you can do two proper runs. So I think it was just a few things that in hindsight we could have done differently.
“And yet today, I think the pace in the car has been more or less the same. It’s just that we executed it the way we should have.
“So yeah, I think it’s been a good day overall.
“I think we’ve learned a lot this morning. I think we learned a lot from Sprint quali yesterday to translate into qualifying this afternoon. And yeah, happy it’s worked out.”
How Piastri is approaching Chinese GP
Piastri will be striving to go one better than he did in the 19-lap Sprint race, where a late move on Max Verstappen came too late to trouble Lewis Hamilton in the lead.
With Hamilton utilising the clear air ahead to avoid the excessive tyre degradation that harmed those behind, Piastri is hoping to work that to his advantage tomorrow.
“I think just making sure your tyres survive is the biggest thing I think we saw this morning [in the Sprint],” he assessed.
“The people that could manage the best in one way or another were the quickest.”
“I think for my own Sprint, I felt like I did a reasonable job,” he said. “It was just difficult trying to get past Max.
“But I think we saw with Lewis being out in front all morning, it probably helped him in the long run. So, I think it’s going to be a pretty interesting race.
“It’s the most deg we’ve probably seen and the most graining we’ve seen in a long time. So it’ll be interesting to see if it stays the same tomorrow.”
READ MORE – Oscar Piastri lands first F1 pole in China, George Russell denies McLaren front-row lockout
