Piastri thought Verstappen's Imola time would be tough to beat

Oscar Piastri admits he thought it was going to be tough to beat Max Verstappen’s lap time at the end of qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix before ultimately taking pole position.

Verstappen set the fastest time on the first runs in Q3, with Piastri 0.049s adrift of the defending champion. However, on the final attempts, Piastri ran first and went quicker than the Red Bull, with Verstappen falling 0.034s short and having to settle for second on the grid behind the championship leader.

“I thought it was going to be tough to beat,” Piastri said. “I felt like my first lap was very strong. I think when I got back to the garage, I saw that there were a few things that could have been a bit better, and found a little bit in a few places, and that was enough in the end. I felt like I definitely had to find a bit more for that final run, and I think I did a good job doing it.

“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 disturbed air, you don’t have any dirty air. I think that definitely helped me out a little bit, but 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. The team did a great job of executing that one.”

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Piastri admits he found the C6 tire unpredictable after all drivers were struggling to get consistent pace out of it, but says with four new sets available for qualifying he felt he had to commit to using the new compound.

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

“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, so very, very happy with the job well done, and I’m excited for tomorrow.”

Verstappen also pointed to the tires as being the main reason he felt pole slip away, as he couldn’t prevent the C6 from overheating in the final stages of his lap.

“I think everything was going really well,” Verstappen said. “It’s just the softest compound is very difficult to keep them alive around the lap. Sector 1 was good and then the tires again fell away from me from there onwards – tiny margins, but I mean, it was cool.

“But then you could see George [Russell], he set his lap on the medium, so maybe they were a bit too soft for this track and for us at least it was a bit more difficult to extract the most out of it. I felt a bit happier on the medium, but the race is tomorrow. That’s where you score the points, of course, so that’s what we have to focus on. I do think that today was a very good day for us.”