Oscar Piastri (McLaren): “We’re still a step behind Mercedes”

Oscar Piastri had a lot to get through right from the start of the Spielberg weekend. As his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris missed the first 45 minutes of free practice due to a hydraulic leak, all the work the world champion team had planned fell to him. The Australian set about his laps diligently, initially completing a number of comparison runs with different front wing configurations.

He then put his foot down on the used medium tyres and managed to set the third-fastest lap. However, the Melbourne-born driver wasn’t entirely without worries, as he reported problems with the brakes. The Woking-based team responded during the lunch break by adjusting the brake pedal. It paid off: Piastri moved up to second place, with only the day’s fastest driver, Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes, managing to complete the 4.326 km lap even faster. The teenager, who leads the World Championship, was 0.237 seconds faster than the McLaren star.

Mercedes sets the benchmark

Piastri summed up after getting out of the car: “That was a pretty good day. But we’re still a step behind Mercedes, or at least behind Kimi. And that’s what we expected. We’ve had a productive day because we tried out a lot of things. There were also a few issues to sort out that came up in Barcelona.”

“And I feel we’ve done a pretty good job trying out a few things,” said the 25-year-old, giving himself and his team a positive assessment. When asked what might be possible in the race, he responded cautiously: “We’ll have to wait and see, because it was very impressive that Kimi was able to set such a fast time on his second lap on the soft tyres.”

“So I don’t know if we can compete on equal terms with Mercedes. We’re clearly more in the ‘best of the rest’ category. And normally, Kimi and Mercedes still find a lot of pace after Friday. So I expect them to be very, very fast,” added the nine-time Grand Prix winner.

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