Piastri Beats Norris Despite Not Having 'Done A Clean Lap All Weekend'
F1Sunday, 26 November 2023 at 04:00
Oscar Piastri reacted to an action-packed Qualifying session in Abu Dhabi after scoring a P3 and outperforming his teammate.
According to Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft, McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris has never been out-qualified by his teammate at Yas Marina Circuit until 2023.
Oscar Piastri became the first driver to do so on Saturday evening qualifying session during the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Australian told the media after scoring P3:
"It's extremely tight this weekend, it's been a bit of a messy one. The pace has been there, just a lot of mistakes and on last lap I made a little bit of a mistake."
While Piastri beat his teammate Norris by mere 34 thousands of a second, he lacked two-tenths on Charles Leclerc in second place and more than three-tenths on the pole lap set by Max Verstappen.
"It would have been one last corner to get to the front, so happy with that the car is very quick this weekend compared to Vegas."
Piastri went into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend with confidence in McLaren's car. The 22-year-old did not seem too worried about the Championship battle with Aston Martin as he said: "It should be okay" if he can extract the car's potential.
On the other hand, Piastri said he struggled with extracting the car's potential throughout the whole weekend. He said he had not done a clean lap all weekend.
"In practice, the pace was there, just there was a couple of big mistakes in every lap. I went into qualifying, and I hadn't done a clean lap all weekend, so made life a bit more difficult for myself. Q1 messy, Q2 got it together finally and it was pretty good in Q3."
Piastri was investigated for impeding Pierre Gasly on a flying lap after the qualifying session, but it has been decided that "no further action" will be taken by stewards, and therefore, the Australian will start the race from third place on the grid right behind Verstappen.
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