Piastri: “The gap from Mercedes is truly impressive”

A week after the mistake made on the reconnaissance lap, which prevented him from taking part regularly in his home GP, Oscar Piastri he took to the track in the Sprint qualifying of the Chinese Grand Prix. Author of the personal best time of 1:32.224, the Australian from McLaren will start from fifth position on the grid, sandwiched between the two Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

A result that partially satisfies the #81, who on the one hand recognized the progress of his team (as evidenced by the 3rd place of the reigning world champion Lando Norris) in a qualifying entirely dominated by Mercedes: “My last attempt was decent, the step forward from medium to soft was big – he commented on the official F1 channels – but the gap to the Mercedes remains quite impressiveso we definitely have to try to work on it. However, the car gave decent sensations.”

McLaren which, according to Piastri’s indications, gave good feedback at a certain point on the Shanghai track, only to then no longer keep up with the pace of Mercedes. An aspect that the Woking manufacturer will analyze on the eve of the Sprint race, scheduled for tomorrow at 4:00 am Italian time: “In the first sector we were doing well, but then the gap in the last sector is really impressiveand, so we need to understand how to further maximize our performance in view of Sprint qualifying and tomorrow’s Sprint.”