Oscar Piastri believes a lock-up in the final corner cost him a likely position for Saturday’s Miami Grand Prix sprint race.
The McLaren driver set the fastest time in sector 2 and was on course to deny Andrea Kimi Antonelli a maiden Formula 1 pole, only to fall short by 0.045s in the end.
An analysis of Piastri’s fastest lap time revealed that he lost a tenth of a second in the final sector to Antonelli, which ended up deciding qualifying in favour of the Mercedes rookie.
While Piastri was generally satisfied with his performance on Friday, he felt a better result slipped away due to an error of his own making.
“It wasn’t the best lap ever,” he said. “I had a lock-up into the last corner which was probably where the pole went away.
“But no, P2 is still a good result. We can still fight from there in the Sprint tomorrow, so all in all, I’m pretty happy.”
Piastri arrived in the US on the back of consecutive victories in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia that have elevated him to the top of the championship standings.
Asked if he was confident about his prospects for the 100km sprint on Saturday, the Australian said: “Yeah, definitely. I think we’ve got a bit more pace to unlock, hopefully.
“I’m feeling positive still. We’ll try and make up a spot tomorrow in the Sprint before we get stuck into where the big points are.”
Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris put together a clean lap in qualifying to grab the third spot on the grid, as he lapped exactly a tenth of a second slower than surprise polesitter Antonelli.
The last few race weekends had been tough for Norris, with a crash in Saudi Arabia qualifying among the list of costly errors he had committed in the early part of the season.
As such, he was thrilled with his performance in Miami on Friday.
“Good! A close, close Qualifying,” he said. “It felt good. I’m happy just to get a good lap in there. It was close, so not much more I could ask for.”
Norris recorded his first grand prix victory exactly a year ago to this date in Miami. The result marked a turning point for both Norris and McLaren, culminating in the Woking-based team winning its first F1 constructors’ title since 1998.
Asked if he can repeat his 2024 victory in the sprint race, the Briton said: “Of course, [there are] a lot of good memories here, but at the same time, you forget about it – it doesn’t matter, it’s in the past.
“I’m concentrating on this weekend and today’s performance, which I think was in a good ballpark. Obviously, not good enough, but it shows how close it is, it shows how quick the Mercedes are, and both of us are behind [Antonelli].
“A bit of a job to do for the Sprint race tomorrow, but close enough that we can still try and aim for a pole [in the main qualifying] tomorrow”
