Piastri was "missing the last tenth" compared to Norris in Spielberg qualifying
Having failed to challenge his team-mate Lando Norris for pole position in qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix, championship leader Oscar Piastri stated that he "was missing the last tenth" throughout the grid-deciding session.
Despite his collision with his team-mate at the Canadian Grand Prix, Lando Norris has looked to be in top form so far at this weekend's Spielberg round.
The Briton sat out the opening session as he handed over his MCL39 to F2 driver Alexander Dunne, but he set the pace both in FP2 and FP3. The McLaren driver then put his disappointment from Canada firmly behind him, dominating the nail-biting qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring to charge his way to a comfortable pole.
His team-mate Oscar Piastri never looked strong enough to challenge Norris for pole, and yellow flags brought out for a spin from Alpine's Pierre Gasly made things even worse. The championship leader ultimately ended up third on the grid behind his team-mate and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Explaining his qualifying performance, Piastri said: "I think through all of qualifying, I was missing that last tenth, but not getting the chance to do my final Q3 run was quite frustrating.
"Sometimes those things are going to happen. I was quite happy that I didn't lose more spots by not doing that. So, third's still an okay place to start around here. You can race around this track, so try and make some progress."
Pressed on how comfortable he has been in his McLaren, the championship leader stated: "Pretty comfortable. FP1 was a little bit of a messy start, but then I felt pretty good through the rest of practice.
"And qualifying again felt quite good. It's very difficult around here to get that perfect lap because there's a lot of corners that have gravel on the exit, and you’ve got to be pretty careful there.
"But there's also a lot of corners that you miss an apex by five centimetres one way or the other, and you've lost a couple of tenths easily. So it's not the easiest track to hook up even though it's short, and I just kind of felt like I didn't quite do that today. So, a bit of a shame."
Signing off with a word for McLaren's latest upgrades that the Woking-based outfit brought to Spielberg, Piastri reckoned that his MCL39 has not changed a lot compared to the previous rounds.
"It doesn't feel that different in the car, but on the timing sheets, it looks good. So that's all we ask for. I think the pace this weekend has looked very strong. So, hopefully, that translates to tomorrow as well."
