Oscar Piastri: “I struggled here in 2024 but now I’m on pole – here’s how I improved” | Spain GP. Oscar Piastri claimed pole position in Barcelona after a strong Q3 lap.

Piastri secured pole position in Barcelona with a superb final lap in Q3. Many improvements compared to last year. Lando Norris, second, yields to his teammate but is already looking ahead to tomorrow’s race.

Last year, Lando Norris took pole at the Spanish GP, while Oscar Piastri managed only tenth place. This year, the Australian made up for it by setting the fastest time in qualifying and taking pole right ahead of his teammate.

McLaren is not at all affected by the introduction of the new front wings. On the contrary, they continue to dominate. Oscar Piastri’s pole time was two tenths faster than Norris’s benchmark. A show of strength by the championship leader, who wants to increase his margin over his main rivals after his third place in Monaco.

“I’m happy. It’s been a good weekend so far. We struggled in practice, but yesterday evening we found pace and the car was incredible. I just had to put the lap together. Twelve months ago I was awful. Being able to turn it around like this this year has been satisfying,” Oscar Piastri said.

“I improved a lot in turn 1 and a couple of other parts of the lap where I struggled during the day. In the first part of the lap I did everything well and held on in the second part. Here the tyres drop off a lot, so I’m happy to have closed the lap so well.”

“I’m happy to start from pole. I’ll have to get off the line well because the run to turn 1 is very long. But the race will be interesting. I’ll start from pole and I thank the team for putting me in the position to be on pole.”

Lando Norris, meanwhile, after the high of Monaco, is back to dealing with his teammate.

The British driver immediately praised his teammate’s great performance, but tomorrow the run to turn 1 will be very long. This could push Lando to attack Oscar Piastri, but the two MCL39 cars will probably also have to defend against rivals closing in.

“Oscar drove very well. I had the pace and made a couple of mistakes. He’s driving well and the team got a great result looking ahead to tomorrow.”

“I hope it’s an easy race for me tomorrow. But we know the run to turn 1 is long and there will be opportunities to fight. Surely we will have to battle those behind us as well because the rivals are close. For now, though, we’re happy with this result.”