Piastri sees McLaren has pace in spades after clinching pole at tough Imola

17:56, 17 May

byNorberto Mujica

Oscar Piastri has taken pole for the Imola Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen. Much like his Dutch rival, the Australian saw the tyres were also tricky to handle in the qualifying session.

Pirelli introduced the C6 compound for Imola, which Verstappen believed to be too soft as it couldn't hold on for a full lap. Piastri labels the compound a mystery as he spoke during the on-the-grid interviews.

"It was a great session. A very tough session with all the delays, red flags, and then also the tyres. The tyres have been very, very tricky today. I think after yesterday, everyone thought the C6 was not too bad, and then today it was, yeah, a real mystery."

"So, the team did a great job, got the car in a nice window. We've been trying a few different things this weekend and we got into a nice place for qualifying. The lap was good, I had about four cars in the last corner which didn't help, but it was enough. I'm very happy with the job we've done and I'm excited for tomorrow now."

'McLaren has enough pace to stick to their guns'

Regarding McLaren's strategy to be the first car on track, Piastri simply highlighted that McLaren's pace gave them the opportunity to be more flexible with their strategy.

"I wasn't thrilled to be the first car on track but I had quite a big gap in the run before anyway, so it wasn't actually that much different for me. Of course you lose the slipstream going first but you don't have any disturb there, you don't have any dirty air, so I think that definitely helped me out a little bit."

"That's what we chose to do. I think we've got enough pace to be able to do that and stick to our guns. And that's what we did. So the team did a great job executing that one."