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Australian ace Oscar Piastri has suffered a wretched blow — just when he was expecting to line up on the front row of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.
Piastri had delivered one of the best qualifying performances of his fledgling F1 career on Saturday by finishing second behind Max Verstappen, leaving him dreaming of the prospect of a maiden triumph in Sunday’s race.
But the delight turned to deflation within hours as he was penalised three grid places for impeding Haas driver Kevin Magnussen in the first session of qualifying, dropping him to fifth from second on the grid.
Instead, Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris took his place on the front row, after his third-place qualifying finish.
The Melburnian’s fine last-gasp lap had been bettered only by resurgent champion Verstappen, but Piastri was adamant afterwards that he could still go on to challenge the Dutchman.
“So, so close to pole, but very happy,” Piastri said, after his final lap fell just 0.071 seconds slower than Verstappen’s brilliant 1 minute 14.746 seconds.
Asked if he thought he could go one place better on Sunday and become the fifth Australian to win an F1 grand prix, Piastri answered in the affirmative.
“I think we’ve definitely been on the pace all weekend. You can never count out Max and Red Bull of course, like we’ve just seen, but I think the confidence is high,” he said.
That, however, was his tune before stewards completed their investigation into the Q1 incident when the Australian got in Magnussen’s way at two turns, ruining the Dane’s lap and chances of reaching Q2.
“It is a shame to lose the front row and having to start from P5 as it’s not the easiest track to overtake on,” Piastri said later.
“However, we will try our best to recover some positions and fight to finish on the podium.”
Nevertheless, it was been another major step up for Piastri, whose car received the full package of upgrades McLaren had first given Norris in Miami, enabling their senior driver to win his first grand prix.
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AAP/ABC
