Oscar Piastri admitted a tinge of disappointment after missing out on sprint pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix, qualifying fourth for McLaren, just 0.099s behind George Russell's pole time. The Australian had briefly topped SQ2 before falling short on the soft tyre run.
The session was incredibly tight, with the top four covered by less than a tenth of a second. Piastri, who struggled in FP1, made a strong recovery after McLaren made setup changes, but he felt he couldn't extract the maximum from the soft tyres in the final phase.
"A little bit, yeah. I think just the soft lap wasn't quite as good," Piastri told Sky Sports. "I feel like it's often the case this year that you put the soft tyre on and it's not quite as nice as the balance you have on the medium."
Despite the missed opportunity, Piastri took the positives from his improved pace. "Compared to where I was this morning in practice, much happier. We changed a few things and I was a lot happier. I think that's the positive, the progress from this morning. With a better lap, maybe we could have had pole," he added.
George Russell clinched pole with a 1m11.567s lap, beating Lando Norris by 0.041s and Charles Leclerc by 0.055s. Piastri believes the battle between McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari will remain close throughout the weekend.
"Yeah definitely. I think it's going to be tight between us, Ferrari and Mercedes by the look of things," he said. "It's going to be all about filling in those last little details and gaps."
Norris, who qualified second, also felt there was more in the tank, particularly with the soft tyre. "I think reasonably happy. It was a reasonable lap and considering how close it was, easily could've been first, easily could've been fourth or fifth. So a good qualifying," said the Lando Norris.
Both drivers highlighted the medium-to-soft transition as an area for improvement, but the team's strong form from Hungary appears to have carried over. "The car's been performing well and it looks like it's continued its strong performance from Budapest. So plenty of positives," Norris concluded.
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