2023 Canadian Grand Prix – qualifying "It's a strong position to start tomorrow and gives us a good chance of scoring some points"

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Saturday 17 June

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.

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FP3 1m25.198s (+2.092) 21 laps 13th
 Q1  1m:21.998s (Inters)   7th
 Q2  1m19.347s (Softs)   3rd
 Q3 1m28.046s (Inters)    7th

“A tough day with tricky conditions, it was a shame we didn’t finish slightly higher up. We didn't get the chance to complete my second lap, which would have pushed us up the grid. Q1, Q2, everything was very good, I was very happy. We did a good job to react to the conditions and fit the Soft tyre. Q3 ended up being just one lap and that was it. I think after two or three laps, I could have been P2 or P3 but with one lap, we weren’t quite able to do the same as the others.” 

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 FP3 1m25.191s (+2.085) 25 laps 12th
 Q1  1m22.190s (Inters)   10th
 Q2  1m19.659s (Softs)   4th
 Q3 1m31.349s (Inters)    9th

“P9 and not the way I wanted to end qualifying. I don’t know how much more there would have been there, in terms of performance, but you never want to end qualifying that way and give the team more work, I certainly appreciate the work they'll put in overnight to get us ready for tomorrow. Otherwise, I think we had a strong qualifying overall, making good decisions at the right time. It’s just a shame it ended like that. I’m feeling confident for tomorrow and hopefully we can stay in the points.” 

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“A solid qualifying session in conditions that were changing rapidly and therefore very tricky. We progressed safely through Q1 and Q2 with good calls by the team and our drivers. In Q3 unfortunately, Oscar was caught out by an oversteer at the point where the tarmac changes and lost the car. That led to a red flag and, as the rain intensified, effectively froze the classification after 1 lap in Q3. While we think we could have placed our cars high up on the grid in these conditions, all in all we welcome a result with two cars in Q3, it’s a strong position to start tomorrow and gives us a good chance of scoring some points.” 

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