Stella praises “almost perfect” Piastri as McLaren shine in Belgium

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was full of praise for Oscar Piastri after the young Australian delivered a sensational performance to secure pole position for the Sprint in Spa-Francorchamps. Despite a brief scare in SQ2, where a lap time deletion left the team nervous, Piastri responded brilliantly with a clean second attempt, putting him at the front of the grid for Saturday’s Sprint race.

“Certainly that was a pretty amazing lap by Oscar,” Stella told Sky Sports after the session. “He capitalised on everything that was available in the car. He took a decent step going from the medium to the soft. An almost perfect session from Oscar apart from the lap deletion in SQ2, which gave us a bit of a moment on the pit wall, but he fixed it with the second lap and deserved pole position for the Sprint.”

It was a strong session overall for McLaren, with Lando Norris securing third place behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The result marks another step forward for the Woking team, who brought new upgrades to Belgium following a solid showing at Silverstone two weeks ago.

“We have a few upgrades here,” Stella revealed. “I want to take the opportunity to thank the entire team. We have a new floor, a new rear wing. We never stop in this business — if you do, you move backwards.”

The McLaren boss confirmed that the updates were working as intended and helping close the gap to the front.

With both drivers near the sharp end of the grid and upgrades performing well, McLaren head into the Sprint with growing confidence — and eyes on an even stronger weekend ahead.