Oscar Piastri in Singapore: Faster than the F1 World Champion in Sprint Qualifying

For Oscar Piastri, the weekend in Singapore got off to a promising start. In the first and only free practice session, the Australian from the Papaya team set the fifth-fastest lap time. With 27 laps completed, he was the more prolific of the two McLaren drivers. However, he was well off the pace of world champion Lando Norris, trailing by almost three tenths of a second.

In Sprint Qualifying, however, the 25-year-old managed to turn the tide at the crucial moment. He improved as the session progressed, but remained slower than his team-mate in the first two segments. In the battle for the top-10 starting positions for the 21-lap race, however, he came out on top.

He lapped the 4.927 km street circuit 0.133 sec faster than Norris, securing a place on the second row of the grid as the fourth-fastest driver. The champion, on the other hand, had to settle for fifth on the grid in the third row.

After qualifying, Piastri said: “I’m quite happy with fourth place; that was more or less what we could achieve. It’s very, very tricky to get the most out of the car here on a sprint weekend. And I felt that the car really came into its own on the soft tyres.”

Oscar Piastri: Good feeling on the soft tyres

“I struggled a lot more on the medium compound,” admitted the Melbourne-born driver. “But as soon as the red-marked tyres were on the car, I felt much better. So it wasn’t a bad performance,” he explained, revealing that the first sector caused him the most trouble. “I had a few concerns with the car there, but in the end it went a bit better.”

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In conclusion, the nine-time Grand Prix winner summed up: “As far as the general driving feel is concerned, it’s actually no different from usual. You have to really push the car to its limits to be fast. And when we had a bit more grip with the soft tyres, things went a bit better. But yes, it’s still a challenge.”