STELLA: “OUR CAR WAS CAPABLE OF TAKING POLE POSITION”

Andrea Stella believes that although the car performed well in qualifying, the team couldn’t fully capitalize on this performance.

While Lando Norris was the fastest driver in both Q1 and Q2, he finished third in Q3. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expressed that McLaren had the speed necessary for pole if they had managed to follow track development throughout the session, but mistakes hindered Q3 performance.

Speaking to Sky, Stella said, “Overall, the car was quite competitive in this qualifying session. Although Carlos Sainz raised the bar a bit in the last session, our car was capable of taking pole position today. We could have achieved it with Lando, but his two laps in Q3 weren’t ideal. He made a few mistakes in the first one, leading to tire overheating, and the second lap wasn’t clean either.”

Stella continued, “What I mean is, while the car’s strong performance is encouraging, we lacked the execution to convert it into a result. Also, there’s a lot of work to be done tomorrow with Piastri to score points.”