“Car was a rocketship,” Oscar Piastri can hardly contain his happiness as he gets maiden top-3 start to British GP for McLaren
The young racer from Melbourne has made McLaren proud with a well-deserved P3 position in the Qualifying for their home Grand Prix.
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After fighting tooth and nail with Alpine for taking up Oscar Piastri as their squad member ahead of the 2023 F1 season, McLaren are finally getting paid for their efforts. Nine races in, Piastri has only managed to gather 5 points in his debut year with McLaren. This, naturally, gave rise to the critics questioning his talent and wondering if the Woking outfit should really have spent millions to prematurely terminate Daniel Ricciardo‘s contract to recruit Piastri. But at their home Grand Prix, McLaren saw the Melbourne native shine as he got a top-3 starting position for the race at Silverstone.
As a racer with both Formula 3 and Formula 2 Championships to his name, Oscar Piastri was undoubtedly a favorite amongst the recruiting teams for their campaigns but Alpine always considered him as theirs since he was a reserve driver under their wing. After Fernando Alonso left for Aston Martin, Alpine had even announced Piastri as their new driver but he later denied signing any contract with the Enstone team. Finally, McLaren swooped in and lured the 22-year-old racer to their Woking headquarters.
While Piastri and Norris have had to race at the back of the grid for a considerable number of races this season, it seems like McLaren have made leaps and bounds towards improvement now. Both their racers finished in the top 3 during the British GP Qualifying, and were beside themselves after seeing the results. Oscar Piastri reacted to his P3 start by saying, “What a qualifying session. We were almost out of Q1. The car was a rocket ship in Q2 and Q3, and I put a good lap together. A massive result for the team as well.“
Oscar Piastri says he will focus all his efforts towards preserving his starting position at the British GP
While both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have delivered spectacular performances to secure their top 3 start at the British GP, the game is not over yet. The two young racers will have to fight off some of their heavyweight opponents like Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to convert their starting grid positions to podium wins. Speaking on this, Oscar Piastri said, “To have both of us up there is a great result for the team. [Now] we just have to stay there.”
The British GP Qualifying turned out to be a major disappointment for both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, two of the most seasoned drivers in the current grid. Alonso has secured six podium finishes till now amongst the nine Grands Prix that have been held. And Lewis Hamilton has eight marvelous victories at the Silverstone circuit. Even then, the Briton could only go up to seven and Fernando Alonso barely finished in the top 10 with his ninth position. Now, it remains to be seen how these two veterans perform at the Main Race tomorrow.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)