Oscar Piastri has denied sacrificing his qualifying pace to gain race pace during the 2024 season.
Race pace was a key weakness for Piastri during his rookie season with McLaren last year and he was often unable to match the speed displayed by teammate Lando Norris.
Norris continues to gain the upper hand this year, but Piastri has shown considerable growth, having a high pace over a number of events – including his two victories in Hungary and Azerbaijan.
But Piastri notably lacks speed in qualifying this year and is led 18 to 3 by the Briton.
“In the race, it’s definitely a very good improvement compared to last year, it’s good.”
“But the improvements in this area have not really come at the expense of the approach to qualifying.”
“There were a few tricky sessions, but even going back to the beginning of the year, my qualifying was very good for a good period of time.”
Piastri admits that improving his qualifying was his main goal, as a better result on Saturday translates into a more successful Grand Prix.
“That’s definitely the goal right now, because it would make my weekends a lot easier, starting a little higher.”
But it's not like I won the race and sacrificed qualifying. In theory, I should be able to be good at both.”
