Oscar Piastri described his pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix as a case of peaking at the right time after beating his teammate Rand Norris in just 0.012 seconds.
Norris looked slightly faster out of the two McLaren drivers during his training at Zandvoort, the track that won the dominant way a year ago. However, when it came to the first Q3 run, Piastri set a faster time and secured the fifth pole position of the season as neither driver was able to improve his final attempt.
- Report: Piastri turns Norris’ table and takes Dutch GP pole
“That was the definition of peaking at the right time,” Piastri said. “I think it felt pretty good on the weekend, but that was some of the corners I couldn’t go faster. I didn’t go really fast in those corners, but I found a little more elsewhere!
“So I’m so happy to have the results. Obviously tomorrow still has all the points, but so far it looked like a slightly tricky weekend, so I’m pretty excited to put it out.
“You’re just keeping missing, and that’s one of the good things about doing so much practice. You have time to work on it. Like I said, I think I’ve already made some improvements to the parts that aren’t bad and made the difference like that.
Despite being beaten by Pistry, Norris was pointing to a straight headwind in the Pitt, as it was not too downbeat and could spend more time than his teammates.
“I felt good around here so I felt pretty good all weekend and there’s always a good flow around here. This was important. Both of my raps were good. I don’t think a lot of people improved on my second run, so I don’t know if it’s a bit tricky or slow on my second run.
“The wind was tricky. It’s easy to like you or you can like you. And a hundredth of a hundred is pretty minimal. Even out of the last corner, I go up a little and lose like a 200th of a year by the time I get to the starting finish line.
“I don’t have much to complain about. I think there were some places where there weren’t enough restrictions. I consistently lost a bit of lap time today and this weekend, so it’s something that requires some places and work, but otherwise the lap would have been good.
Norris said he had to overtake Max Verstappen on his way to a victory at Zandvoort a year ago, but is a much higher order against Piastri given the performance levels of each.
“I mean, there’s no crime in Max – he was in a much slower car last year, which really helps,” Norris said. “Oscar is in a much faster car this year, and your teammate is usually your teammate.
“So you’re going to take magic, some good strategies, some incredible tire savings or something. But it’s usually pretty hard to overtake in the first place. It’s even more difficult to do that behind a teammate.
