McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has revealed that a slight gearbox problem cost him vital time during his final lap in Sprint Qualifying at Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
While team-mate Lando Norris stormed to a surprise pole position in wet conditions, Piastri classified a sizeable three seconds behind the sister car in eighth place.
Piastri had been in the same ballpark as Norris when conditions were drier earlier in the session, overturning a two-tenth deficit in SQ1 to lead his team-mate in SQ2.
Although he denies that he had the pace to beat Norris to pole, the Australian disclosed that a minor issue on his final lap resigned him to the fourth row of the grid.
“I thought it was going OK and then last lap had a bit of a moment, when I shifted it went into neutral,” he said. “I don’t know how much time I lost but it was a decent chunk.
“Not enough to challenge Lando for pole, because he’s done a great job, but frustrating. I think it’s just one of those days.”
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella backed up Piastri’s claim that he could have been higher for tomorrow’s Sprint without the small hitch that provided a setback.
“Oscar, he had an issue unfortunately coming out of the hairpin because of the wheelspin, his gearbox went into neutral apparently and he lost a lot of time otherwise we could have had the two drivers high on the grid for the Sprint, but overall a good session for us; we are happy,” Stella explained.
McLaren held expectations that the Shanghai International Circuit’s combination of slow-speed corners and long straights would expose the weaknesses of its car.
However, the Woking-based squad has shown a competitive pace in all conditions in the nascent stages, leaving Piastri enthused about its chances this weekend.
“I think we look a bit better than maybe we expected,” he admitted. “It’s of course tough to know, because everyone’s done such little running.
“But I think it’s been overall more positive than maybe we expected. So I’m excited to see what we can do for the rest of the weekend.”
