Oscar Piastri rewrites record books with historic qualifying lap

News.com.au

2 days ago

Championship leader Oscar Piastri secured pole position for Saturday's sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix as he beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.477 seconds with a devastating record lap in his McLaren.
The 24-year-old Australian, who leads the drivers' championship by eight points ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris, clocked a fastest lap in 1min 40.510sec to seize the prime starting position.
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His record-setting lap blew the previous record out of the water, knocking off Lewis Hamilton's time from 2020 by more than seven tenths.
Norris, like the rest of the field, was left helpless as the Aussie scorched his way around the historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Watch the record-setting moment in the video player above
'That was a good lap!' said Piastri.
'I had a scare in SQ2 with the deletion of my lap, but the car has been mega all day I feel like I've been able to put in a lot of good laps.
'Thanks to the team, the car's been great and this is a track I love. It's my favourite one of the year and, I don't know, maybe that gave me a couple of extra tenths! It's always good fun around here, when the car's handling as well as it is today it's a pleasure.'
Piastri was asked why he appeared to carry so much confidence around the circuit with the Aussie stating it was all down to the track being one of his favourites on the calendar.
'I don't know. The car has been in a good window from Lap 1, and again it's a track I always enjoy coming to and, yeah, I don't know why,' he said.
'I think I had good confidence, I feel like the last few weekends have been good from a pace perspective but not so much from a results perspective, so it's nice to get a result today.
'The pace in the car is really strong. I've felt good today so hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow.'
The history-making display from the Aussie left those watching on with their jaws on the floor.
Formula 1 God wrote on X: 'OH. MY. WORD. Oscar Piastri's sprint pole position laptime is OVER SEVEN TENTHS FASTER than the previous lap record … set by Lewis Hamilton in the MERCEDES W11.'
The F1 Republic wrote: 'An unstoppable lap from the Aussie secured Sprint Pole ahead of Verstappen and Norris.'
P1's Matt Gallagher wrote: 'Oscar Piastri that is a PHENOMENAL lap... nearly half a second clear!!!'
Another wrote: 'That piastri lap…. standing up and applauding that's my driver.'
Piastri's success helped him erase his disappointment at the British Grand Prix where he was handed a 10-second penalty and felt he missed out on a victory as Norris won to trim his lead in the title race.
Verstappen, in his first race weekend since the exit of team boss Christian Horner, said he was satisfied with P2.
'To be there between the two of them is a good result for us,' he said.
'And I enjoyed it out there and the lap was good. The gap is big, so we have to focus on ourselves and the balance of the car.'
Belgian Grand Prix Sprint grid
Front row: Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen
Second row: Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc
Third row: Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz
Fourth row: Oliver Bearman, Pierre Gasly
Fifth row: Isack Hadjar, Gabriel Bortoleto
Sixth row: Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda
Seventh row: George Russell, Fernando Alonso
Eighth row: Lance Stroll, Alexander Albon
Ninth row: Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton
Tenth row: Franco Colapinto, Kimi Antonelli