Oscar Piastri does not believe McLaren’s drivers will have the fight for pole position to themselves despite the team topping both practice sessions on Friday at Imola.
The winner of the last three grands prix headed second practice by two hundredths of a second from team mate Lando Norris. Max Verstappen and George Russell, their closest rivals in the championship, were fourth and fifth respectively behind Pierre Gasly.
Piastri is sure it won’t be just the two MCL39s in the hunt for pole tomorrow. “At the moment I don’t think it’s just Lando and I,” he said. “I think there’s a few others that will join us in the fight tomorrow so we’ve got to keep our heads down and try and find a bit more.”
However he admitted he was “reasonably” pleased with the team’s pace during practice. “But I think there’s still some things we want to try and work on and improve,” he said.
“This wouldn’t be the first Friday where we’ve looked strong and then everyone’s found a bit more going into qualifying. So I think we still want to find a bit more but everything’s gone pretty smoothly. The car’s feeling decent still a few more things to tweak, but all in all, not bad.”
Verstappen took pole position for the last two grands prix. Piastri says the difficulty of overtaking at Imola will make this pole especially important.
“Saturday has been very important pretty much everywhere this year,” he said. “I think Imola is, regardless of what the rest of this year’s looked like, a place where qualifying means a lot. That is going to be important.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
McLaren dominated the Miami Grand Prix, where Piastri finished 37 seconds ahead of the team’s closest rival. However team principal Andrea Stella does not expect they will be able to replicate that performance at Imola.
“I think we are understanding the strengths of the MCL39, which overall is a competitive car, but in some conditions it seems to have a certain advantage over the rest of the field,” he said. “These conditions materialised very well in Miami with the track layout, the speed range, the ambient temperatures.
“But we know very well that in some other kinds of circuits like in Saudi or Japan, it’s a different story. Everything gets quite a lot tighter.
“So, hopefully we will be able to retain this characteristic and this advantage over the course of the season. But I think this will require the car to be developed, to be upgraded, because we see that no one is waiting, no one is standing still. We see upgrades being brought trackside by our competitors.
“We do plan to upgrade the MCL39 and try and, if anything, possibly make the car even more suitable for a wider range of conditions and cornering speed.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Browse all 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix articles
News
