Karun Chandhok thinks qualifying for the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix will have left a Formula 1 driver feeling ‘a bit disappointed’ after struggling for pace on Saturday.
The travelling circus of Formula 1 has now pitched its tents back in Europe for the remainder of the summer. Max Verstappen arrived at the Spanish GP in round 10 of the term at the top of the drivers’ standings on 194 points. Charles Leclerc sits second with a 56-point deficit.
Not until September 15 when the Azerbaijan GP rolls around for round 17 of the season will the pinnacle of motorsport depart Europe again. Red Bull will hope to head to West Asia sat atop the constructors’ standings still, with the team from Milton Keynes in P1 on 301 points.
Karun Chandhok thinks Oscar Piastri will be ‘disappointed’ in qualifying for the Spanish GP
McLaren have made inroads into Red Bull’s advantage in recent races, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri thriving since introducing upgrades at the Miami GP. Norris won his first F1 race in Florida and got P2 in the Emilia Romagna and the Canadian GPs, as did Piastri in Monaco.
But Piastri began qualifying for the 2024 Spanish GP on the back foot to Chandhok’s wonder this Saturday. The 23-year-old’s first run in Q1 left him facing a 0.783-second gap to Leclerc at the top of the timesheet. Piastri was even 0.654s down on Norris’ pace in their first laps.
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Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton also bettered Piastri’s initial lap time in Q1. But another bite of the cherry saw the Melbourne native reach Q2 in P7. Yet Chandhok felt Piastri’s initial effort did not meet his expectations.
“That’s not great,” Chandhok noted on Sky Sports F1 (22/06/24, 15:08). “I think he’ll be a bit disappointed with that.”
Oscar Piastri would have wanted to lap closer to Lando Norris’ instant pace
Piastri would have wanted to lap closer to Norris’ pace at the start of Q1 to avoid having to attempt a second run. But his early deficit was just a blip as Piastri progressed to Q2 with a 0.317-second deficit to the table-topping 1:12.143 effort that Hamilton set in his Mercedes.
Just 0.074s also split the McLaren teammates in Q1 with Norris advancing through the first stage in P4. But the 24-year-old Briton only required one run to set his time, as did Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz. Hamilton joined Piastri in requiring six laps in Q1, rather than three.
Piastri dropping out of qualifying for the Spanish GP in Q1 would have even been McLaren’s worst result all season. The Australian, who has scored 81 of his 178 career points in F1 this year, arrived in Barcelona with a worst qualifying result in 2024 of P8 from the Bahrain GP.
The post ‘That’s not great’: Chandhok thinks 178-point F1 driver will be ‘disappointed’ at Spanish GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.