McLaren has started its Formula 1 season with a front-row lockout after a chaotic qualifying in Australia. The Papaya team comes off an impressive 2024 season, taking home its first championship win since 1998.
Lando Norris finished first on the grid with a lap time of 1:15.096. Oscar Piastri, racing in front of his home crowd, finished second, followed by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen who is eager to continue the championship success he’s been seeing over the last four years.
Speaking in the post-qualifying interview, Piastri was happy with the start of his season, although it’s clear he wanted more after a provisional pole earlier in the session.
“Yeah, pretty happy,” he said. “It’s obviously great to start the year on the front row – only one position further back that I would have liked – but no, I think it’s a great start to the year and great to have the team on the front row.
“Now we’ll reset and see what tomorrow has in store but I’m pretty happy with how qualifying went, just not quite enough in Q3, but it’s the start of a long season, so I’m pretty happy with a solid start.”
When being asked where he lost time to his teammate, the Australian highlighted a number of small mistakes.
“I think the sector 3, I lost a little bit of time compared to the lap before from Q2, and I also locked up there and went off in the first round of Q3, so I didn’t really want to do that twice. I maybe left it a little bit on the table, but I think it was pretty tricky out there for everybody. Q3 at the start looked pretty messy, so I’m just happy to be on the front row and have a good start.”
Norris is almost getting used to being at the front of the grid as he begins his first season of fighting for the championship from the first round.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“It’s the perfect way to start the year, you know, so… first of all, a big congrats to the team, everyone at McLaren. An amazing job to continue from where we were at the end of last season, to start with a 1-2, but it’s just quali, right?
“Let’s wait and see tomorrow. It’s going to be a tricky race, but today was a perfect race start.”
McLaren aren’t just fighting for another constructors’ championship, but also for a drivers’ championship with the team nurturing Norris for this since he joined the grid in 2019.
“The team have done such a good job, the car is extremely quick, and when you put it together it’s unbelievable. It’s just difficult to put it together so really it was like a little fight between me and Oscar today, and it was a tough one, and especially after my first lap where I went off and got track limits, and I knew the second lap I had to… You’re in a tough position.
“You need to take a lot of risk, but you also need to make sure you get the lap clean and don’t make any mistakes. It’s a difficult mindset to go into the final lap, but I managed to pull it off, so I’m very happy.”
Verstappen was surprisingly fast in qualifying after rather sedate practice sessions from the Milton Keynes outfit. But with rain coming, tomorrow will be less about car performance and more about driver skill.
“I’m confident that the car’s in a great position, but we’ve also never run in the, in the wet,” Norris warned. We know how quick Max is and Red Bull is in the in the rain, so, let’s wait and see. Many, many opportunities for everyone, but also a lot of new things that we’re going to be learning along the way.”
Leave feedback about this