McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was “not surprised” to find himself in the top three after Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying session.
The Australian’s confidence stemmed from a positive feeling from his McLaren right from opening practice.
Positivity followed Piastri into qualifying as he finished second, albeit three-tenths off of polesitter Charles Leclerc.
Still, in contrary to Lando Norris, who exited qualifying Q1, Piastri was sure he’d end up speaking to the media in the top three Azerbaijan GP qualifying press conference.
“I think I said yesterday I felt like we were in the ballpark,” Piastri explained.
“Yeah, I’m not massively surprised to be sat here. I definitely didn’t feel like we were the quickest yesterday, but again, I feel like it’s so close between the top four teams that you never quite know who’s going to come out on top.
“Red Bull were looking very quick at certain points, Ferrari obviously looking very quick, even Mercedes at points as well.
“So, yeah, I always thought we were in a pretty good place. So, yeah, not that surprised to be here.”
Piastri critical of final qualifying run
Piastri was critical of his final run, which he felt was littered with errors as he pushed to get the maximum from his McLaren.
Still, regardless of how the final run went, Piastri was happy to be on the front row after he felt pole was out of reach.
“It certainly wasn’t the cleanest [final lap],” he said.
“A few big moments in there and a couple of love taps with the wall.
“I pushed everything that I could to get out of it, and maybe a little bit too much in some places, but I don’t think I had enough to get pole today, so I’m pretty happy with the front row.
“Hopefully we can try and put up a fight tomorrow.”
Piastri will start between Leclerc and his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz on Sunday’s grid at Baku.
After the top five in qualifying were covered by half a second, Piastri implied the race is anyone’s for the taking.
“I think it’s very, very even,” he said.
“Through all of practice it looked very tight between us, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.
“To be honest, I was a bit surprised Red Bull wasn’t a bit further up at the end of Q3.
“I think our race pace looked good yesterday, but nowadays the top four teams are so close in race pace that qualifying often makes a massive difference.
“So, I’ve got confidence that our car will be quick, but yeah, I think there’s definitely seven other cars out on the track that are certainly not any slower.”
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