Courtesy: F1/X
On Saturday, March 22, Oscar Piastri of McLaren took pole position for the first-time in his F1 career at the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of George Russell of Mercedes, and his teammate Lando Norris. The Australian was clinical in the final part of qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit, registering the two quickest laps in the field, ending up 0.082 seconds quicker than George Russell in second place.
Lando Norris was all set to secure a front road lockout for McLaren for the Sunday’s main race, but a mistake from him in the middle sector on his final lap meant that he had to abort it. This allowed George Russell to secure the second place on the grid, while Max Verstappen of Red Bull earned himself the fourth place, and then, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari ended up in fifth and sixth place on the grid respectively for the upcoming showdown.
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I'm just pumped to be on pole: Oscar Piastri
Earlier today, Lewis Hamilton earned a valuable eight points for Ferrari after winning the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix, controlling it right through from pole. But, in the qualifying for the main race, the Briton wasn’t able to replicate the heroics of the qualifying for the sprint race, which meant that he had to settle for the fifth spot on the grid for Sunday’s blockbuster.
After securing the pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri was quite happy about his afternoon’s work at the Shanghai International Circuit. He was quoted as saying, as per BBC Sport, “It means a lot, Q3, (I) just found a lot of pace, Q1 and Q2 I was genuinely struggling but the car came alive in Q3 and I think I did, too, the laps were a little bit scruffy. I'm just pumped to be on pole.”
“First lap was better than second lap, (I) lost a couple of 10ths and then I thought: 'Why not send it into the hairpin?' And gained those 0.2secs back and found a bit more for the final corner. I was going to abort that lap. I'm glad I didn't,” he added.
