Oscar Piastri Takes Spa Sprint Pole In Record Time

Oscar Piastri will line up on pole position in his McLaren for tomorrow’s Sprint Race. The Australian was quickest in the final phase of Sprint Qualifying in a time of 1’40”510, which is a new record for this layout of the Spa-Francorchamps track. Second-placed Max Verstappen (1’40”987, Red Bull) and third-placed Lando Norris (1’41”128, McLaren) also beat the previous record of 1’41”252, which secured pole for Lewis Hamilton in 2020. Rounding off the front two rows will be Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari, fourth fastest in 1’41”278.

It’s the third time that Piastri has been quickest in Sprint Qualifying, while it’s the sixth pole in this discipline for McLaren, the same number as Red Bull, all of them courtesy of Verstappen.

It’s worth noting that eight teams feature in the top ten, with the only ones doing so with both drivers being McLaren and Haas, while Aston Martin and Mercedes are the only ones not to feature. Also, the two drivers who took the two previous Sprint poles this year will start from the penultimate and last rows of the grid, being Hamilton quickest in Shanghai and Antonelli fastest in Miami.

In the only free practice session, this being a Sprint weekend, only Red Bull and Haas did not run the Hard, opting for a set of Mediums before switching to the Softs as usual. As for the rest of the field, the Mercedes and Racing Bulls drivers never ran the softest compound, alternating the Hard and Medium.

As per the regulations, in Sprint Qualifying, the Medium was used for SQ1 and SQ2 with the Soft coming into play in SQ3.

Oscar Piastri – Pole

“I’m really pleased with that. The pace in the car has been strong all day, and I felt confident going into Sprint Qualifying. I had a little bit of a scare in SQ2, but we put it all together when we needed to, with a lap I was really happy with. We’ll see what we can do in the Sprint tomorrow before we reset for Grand Prix Qualifying.”

Simone Berra – Pirelli Chief Engineer

“With today’s conditions in FP1, namely track temperatures of between 30 and 35 °C, the C1 performed better than expected, especially on those cars able to develop a high level of aero downforce, making the tyres work well with little sliding.

“The gap to the Medium is obviously very big given that we decided not to bring three consecutive compounds, skipping from the C1 as Hard to the C3 as Medium. In SQ3 we saw a difference of around four tenths between the C3 and C4, close to our simulations prior to the event. Actually, the pole time was much quicker than our simulations which are based on the average of those we receive from the teams. It was about a second faster and it is only Friday!

“The fact that four drivers still have two sets of Hards each could mean that some of them might use one tomorrow in the Sprint, given that the regulations state they must all have one set, as well as a set of Mediums for Sunday’s race. The only hour of free practice on the timetable saw all the teams, with the exception of Haas and Sauber bring updates to Spa. This meant there was very little time for the teams to look at tyre performance over a long run. We will know more tomorrow after the Sprint, where it’s quite possible that all three compounds will put in an appearance. Perhaps those who have nothing to lose because they are starting from the back of the grid, might use the 15 laps to check the behaviour of the compounds other than the Medium, which is the most obvious choice for the short race, with a view to Sunday’s Grand Prix. Unless the weather throws all the plans out of the window!”