McLaren’s Oscar Piastri believes that securing grid position over Mercedes proved vital to him finishing ahead of its drivers in Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Piastri excelled at the high-speed Jeddah circuit for the second consecutive term and qualified ahead of team-mate Lando Norris to front McLaren’s third-row lockout.
The Australian dispatched Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin in the opening laps and his status as the lead McLaren entitled him to pit under the Safety Car on Lap 7.
But Piastri became bogged down behind the long-running Lewis Hamilton and was unable to complete an overtake despite going wheel-to-wheel with the Mercedes.
Amid McLaren’s concern that it was lacking top-end speed compared to its competitors, Piastri admits that the Jeddah race confirmed the limitations of the MCL38.
“I’m not sure fun is the word I would use,” he said regarding the battle. “Frustrating – yes. I mean, I think it kind of just showed a couple of weaknesses of ours definitely.
“I was very relieved when he boxed out of the way but just didn’t quite have enough on the straights mainly to get past.”
Questioned about being worried over the time lost being tucked up behind Hamilton, Piastri, who finished fourth, answered: “No, because he hadn’t stopped yet.
“I was hoping he was going to pit about 15 laps before he did, but I think he started to struggle on the tyre because I was basically past him when he boxed, so yeah.
“I think he, you know, he had to pit at some stage. And that seemed like a good time to do.”
Piastri reckons that his trouble in overcoming Hamilton even with the advantage of newer rubber showcased that obtaining track position was essential to his race.
Meanwhile, Hamilton was prevented from using Mercedes’ speed advantage down the straights against Norris as he lost too much time in the high-speed corners.
Piastri contends that the close fight involving McLaren and Mercedes is “very, very even” at this stage as there are “different strengths and weaknesses” in the cars.
“I think qualifying made the difference today,” he continued. I think Lewis showed that if we qualify behind them, there was a good chance we were going to be stuck behind them for the whole night.
“So I think it’s very, very tight between us. And yeah, we need to do some work to try and jump them and catch the two teams [Red Bull and Ferrari] ahead.”
The next round on the F1 calendar sees Piastri return to home surroundings with the Australian Grand Prix, but he remains grounded about McLaren’s potential.
“I think there’s a bit of a mix. A bit more low speed than here. But we’ll see,” he previewed.
“Hopefully, we can have a good race. So if there’s one race of the year you can pick to have a good one it’s your home race. So we’ll try our best.
“But yeah, I think if we can finish around where we did tonight, that would be the most we can do.”
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