Oscar Piastri has described his third place in qualifying for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone as a “massive confidence boost”.
The Australian will start on the second row, the best result of his F1 career, one spot back from his McLaren team-mate, Lando Norris.
McLaren starred throughout the three-part session, with Norris holding provisional pole for a time at the climax of the Qualifying hour.
The result comes as the team introduces a significant upgrade to the MCL60, the first part fitted to Norris’ car in Austria.
Piastri has had those parts bolted onto his car this weekend and wasted no time putting them to good use.
Asked by Speedcafe what the Qualifying result means to him personally, the Melburnian said: “It’s a massive confidence boost.
“I think, regardless of the end result, I feel like I did a good lap.
“I’ve made a few mistakes in Q3 through the year, so it’s nice to have a solid lap on the board and to have it for P3 as well is even better.
“So yeah, gaining more and more confidence every time I get out on track and more experience, obviously.
“It’s just nice to be fighting for much higher positions now.”
“It’s been a great day,” he added.
“Even this weekend, we thought we could get into the top 10 at least but when the conditions were looking like they were, it’s genuinely been pretty solid for us previously.
“So I think we went in quietly confident that we could pull off something pretty special, and we’ve managed to do it.
“Happy with the lap I did, wasn’t too much left out there, so I’m not happy to be in the top three.”
Piastri has enjoyed a solid start to his F1 career, winning fans within the team courtesy of his considered approach to each weekend.
It’s led McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown to describe him as a future world champion, while team principal Andrea Stella has described the 22-year-old as ‘remarkable’ and a fast learner.
The only blot on his copybook was a crash during Qualifying in Canada when a small mistake was punished heavily by the narrow nature of the Montreal venue.
Even that didn’t phase the Australian, who has been unshakeable since stepping into the F1 paddock, and he instead took it as a learning opportunity.
Conditions in the early part of Qualifying in Silverstone were remarkably similar to those in Canada, but there was no repeat, and Piastri maximised his package, logging a time just over 0.1s slower than Norris.
While pleased with the result, he was already looking at the next target.
“There’s only two more spots left for today but I’ll try to keep pushing,” Piastri said.
“There’s things I still need to work on.
“I think over one lap, the pace this year has generally been pretty solid when I haven’t made any mistakes.
“The races, still need to figure a few things out, which will come with time.
“So that’s a big focus, but [I’m] very happy at the moment to be up here in P3.”
Discussion about this post