SHANGHAI : A pumped Oscar Piastri seized his first Formula One pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday and said he had done the hairpin of his life to smash the Shanghai circuit record.
The Australian, who had previously only secured the top slot for 100km sprint races, told reporters his qualifying time of one minute 30.641 seconds was secured at the end of the straight.
“My first lap was honestly better than my second lap, but just at the hairpin at the end of the straight I lost a bit of time and didn’t do the best hairpin,” he said.
“And then the second lap I was about two-tenths down on myself, so I kind of just went ‘why not send it into the hairpin?’ and I gained those two-tenths back and then found a little bit more in the last corner.
“Honestly, without that, I was tempted to box (pit) before that. So I’m pretty happy now that I didn’t…I just did a good corner, that’s all.”
As he told his team over the radio, it was “the hairpin of my life”.
Now in his third season in Formula One, Piastri already has two wins to his name and starts as favourite for a third on Sunday.
That would make up for the crushing disappointment of starting on the front row in his home race in Melbourne last weekend and sliding off while chasing winning team mate Lando Norris before finishing ninth.
Norris leads the championship on 26 points, with Piastri level with Ferrari’s sprint winner Lewis Hamilton on nine.
The pole was the first for an Australian driver since Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull in Mexico in 2018.
“I’m a racing driver, so I’m selfish. So it’s nice to do it for myself but it is also nice to do it for Australia as well,” said the 23-year-old, who added that he has Chinese heritage.
“The pole position is a really good confidence boost. It’s obviously my first one. So it’s always nice to tick that box.
“It’s been a good start to the whole year for both the team and myself, even if the points tally doesn’t look like that at the moment. So (I’m) happy with how things are going, and this is a nice step along the way.”
(Writing by Alan Baldwin in London, Editing by Ed Osmond)
