It was a memorable Saturday for the McLaren team in the end, as they used their new upgrades to their advantage to put both cars in the top three after qualifying, Oscar Piastri beats teammate Lando Norris, in their battle for second as Max Verstappen just proved once again to be too strong
Piastri finished today on the front row, as he slots into P2, the Australian is looking forward to starting with only one driver ahead of him, "It's the first time I've been on the front row for a while, it'll be cool. There's only one car ahead to overtake, so I'll try make that happen", The rookie put together an impressive performance on his first visit to the track, but still doesn't think he's managed the perfect lap "The first was pretty solid, quite happy with it. I could've done a better job at the last chicane. First sector was good on the second lap, last two sectors not so good. It's been a good weekend for the team so far. We've got upgrades on the car and they're quick."
The Brit didn't manage to beat his teammate or the reigning world champion in the qualifying session today, but he did manage to beat 17 other drivers, and that's something he's delighted with "It's been a very good day for us, a great job by Oscar and as usual, Max. I was pretty happy with my laps. It's not an easy circuit to put everything together," As with his teammate he believes they may be able to do something special in the race, and Norris wants to add to the some of hte iconic stories McLaren has already written at Suzuka, "Some of the most amazing McLaren stories come from here, we want to continue that tradition. We will do our best to make their (Red Bull) life difficult"
I like Piastri's attitude, cool, calm and collected and lets his racing do the talking. He has a way to go but a big talent in F1 now. Looking forward to more from him.
If Lando is still behind Oscar come pit stop time, I wonder if McLaren will give a more favourable pitstop strategy which will allow Lando to get ahead of Piastri to score more points in the drivers championship to try catching drivers like Russell or the two Ferrari drivers or will they try helping Piastri to score maximum points to try catching and surpassing Gasly and Stroll?
McLaren have shown that they favour Norris over Piastri, wouldn't surprise me if another undercut follows here. Depends of course, if the grid positions remains the same after the first few laps.