Piastri ‘surprised’ by Baku P3 qualifying pace

Oscar Piastri emerged from McLaren's rather subdued practice session in Baku to claim a place on the second row for Saturday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but the Aussie admitted that his qualifying performance caught him off guard.

McLaren had struggled to make a strong impression through Friday’s running, with neither Piastri nor Lando Norris looking like obvious candidates for a front-row berth. Yet the picture changed dramatically once qualifying got underway, as both drivers immediately found a significant improvement.

Piastri briefly sat second after the opening Q3 runs, while Norris was also inside the top three. George Russell ultimately proved untouchable, however, while Charles Leclerc edged Piastri for P2 by just 0.001s.

The result left Piastri with third place and McLaren wondering where that extra pace had suddenly come from.

McLaren finds another gear

Piastri said the transformation was familiar territory for McLaren this season, with the team repeatedly finding more performance when qualifying arrives.

“It’s not the first time that’s happened to us this year,” explained Piastri. “We seem like we’re a bit on the back foot through practice, we come out in Qualifying and, yeah, we just find that bit extra.

“I was pretty surprised to see us 1-2 after the first lap of Q3, but unfortunately, we had no hope against George [Russell]. So, happy with how the weekend’s gone so far.”

P3 gives Piastri a strong platform for the race, particularly given McLaren’s encouraging long-run pace from Thursday.

The nine-time Grand Prix winner has also enjoyed contrasting fortunes around Baku: he won here in 2024 after a lengthy battle with Leclerc, before a pair of crashes the following year contributed heavily to his championship troubles.

This time, Piastri is refusing to read too much into his qualifying position before the lights go out.

“Difficult to know,” he said when asked about his chances. “I think, honestly, our race pace [on Thursday] almost looked better than our one-lap pace. So from that side of things I was pretty happy, but we’ll have to wait and see.

“Obviously, it’s always a bit of chaos around here, so we’ll see what we get.”

Norris left chasing answers

While Piastri could celebrate a surprisingly strong result, Norris was left to rue a costly lock-up on his final qualifying attempt that dropped him to fifth.

The reigning World Champion felt there was little to lose by attacking the lap, particularly with Russell setting a formidable benchmark at the front.

“I was already up I think a little bit on the first two corners,” he explained.

“I mean, when we’re so far off, I’m going to try and push to get a… So I don’t think P1 was possible today, because George did an amazing job, but I’d rather try and push for P1 and P2 but make a mistake than settle for a P5, or a P3, or a P4.

“It’s the way it is sometimes. Obviously we’re a long way off, but still there or thereabouts.”

Norris also suggested that the McLaren’s underlying limitations had prevented him from extracting everything he wanted from qualifying, despite being pleased with his own driving throughout the weekend.

“I’ve been driving very well this weekend,” he added. “It’s just some problems that we have with the car that just limits my lap time a little bit. Hopefully we can fix them.

“We’re probably not going to fix them tomorrow, which means we’re in for a tough race. We’ve got some things we need to fix on the car, because I’m just at a deficit to the other car at the minute.”

• Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Qualifying results

With Piastri starting third and Norris fifth, McLaren has nevertheless converted a relatively anonymous practice showing into a pair of competitive starting positions.

Whether that surprise qualifying pace can translate into a podium challenge is now the next question.

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