- Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified first and second
- McLaren achieved its first front row since 2012
- Piastri becomes a fan favorite thanks to his sense of humor
McLaren’s Australian driver Oscar Piastri has vowed to let personal ambition take a backseat to team priorities after a remarkable front row dominance at Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Piastri will line up alongside pole-sitter Lando Norris after the British team dominated Saturday’s qualifying session.
“Of course, when I lose by two hundredths, I think about all the little things I can do a little bit better, but it’s an incredible result for the team,” said Piastri, before adding that the main objective is to keep both papaya-coloured cars at the front when the race ends.
“Of course I want to get into the lead, but we have both cars on the front row and we are trying to win this championship as a team, and we will be smart,” said the Australian.
“We want to keep the one-two and we will fight each other to see who gets the one.”
Piastri is fifth in the drivers’ standings with 124 points, while second-placed Norris has 171. Max Verstappen leads him by a wide margin with 255. Piastri is yet to win a grand prix, but has finished second in Canada and Austria this year.
Piastri is becoming a fan favourite with his dry sense of humour which was once again on display during qualifying.
The Australian was told to slow down to protect his teammate’s position towards the end of the final qualifying session.
Oscar Piastri (pictured) is becoming a fan favourite with his dry sense of humour.
“The priority here is not to have any sporting infringements or penalties, which means not excessively impeding the cars at the pit exit,” said the Piastri engineer.
Piastri’s response was a silent raised eyebrow that has since gone viral.
Piastri also had fans laughing when he was asked on the radio whether it was Daniel Ricciardo or Yuki Tsunoda behind him trying to get on track.
“I think Tsunoda is missing a couple of wheels,” he said dryly.
“So I don’t think I’ll be going around in circles.”
“Oh, yes,” the pit bulls replied. “Fair enough.”
After the race, the McLaren driver was pleased to have become the first McLaren duo to occupy the front row since 2012 in Brazil. “It’s the first one-two finish in qualifying for McLaren in a long time, so I’m very happy,” he said.
Referring to an awkward second practice session on Friday, when he finished 13th in qualifying, Piastri added: “Yesterday was a tricky day for me, so it was nice to bounce back.”