Oscar Piastri reveals costly error that denied him Miami sprint pole

Oscar Piastri revealed that a lock-up at the end of his SQ3 lap denied him pole position for the sprint race in Miami.

Piastri qualified second in sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, 0.045s behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

The Australian was on course to take pole for the sprint race but locked up in Turn 17, the heavy braking zone at the end of the back straight.

Despite Piastri’s mistake in the final sector, he was once again the lead McLaren driver in qualifying, beating teammate Lando Norris, who will start third.

Reflecting on his sprint qualifying display, Piastri said: “Reasonably happy. It wasn’t the best lap ever.

“I had a lock-up at the last corner which was probably where the pole went away. P2 is still a good result.

“We can still fight from there in the sprint tomorrow. All in all, pretty happy.”

Even without his error, the gap between the top three teams seems to be closer than expected.

Piastri feels there’s still “more pace to unlock” ahead of qualifying on Saturday.

“I think we’ve got a bit more pace to unlock hopefully,” Piastri added.

“Feeling positive still and try to make up a spot tomorrow in the sprint before we get back into where the big points are.”

Norris positive despite Piastri defeat

On the other side of the McLaren garage, Norris was pleased to put together a tidy qualifying session.

It’s a welcome boost for Norris, who struggled in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

A major mistake at Turn 1 in Bahrain left him sixth on the grid, while in Jeddah, he crashed out in the early stages of Q3.

Assessing his qualifying in Miami, Norris said: “Good. Close qualifying. It felt good. Happy just to get a lap in there. It was close. Not much more I could ask for.”

Miami is also the scene of Norris’ first F1 grand prix victory last year.

However, Norris is keen to put those good memories to the back of his mind as he looks to find more pace ahead of tomorrow.

“A lot of good memories here. At the same time, you forget about it,” Norris added. “It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past. Concentrating on this weekend and today’s performance I think was in a good ballpark.

“Not good enough but shows how close it is. Shows how quick the Mercedes are.

“Both of us are behind. A bit of a job to do for the sprint race tomorrow. Close enough that we can still aim for a pole tomorrow.”