McLaren’s Oscar Piastri has admitted that he was taken aback by the “very strong” pace that Mercedes showed through the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix weekend.
Piastri was in contention to stand alongside team-mate Lando Norris on the podium, but he was unable to resist the Mercedes drivers’ advances across the final laps.
The Australian conceded that he was powerless to prevent the two Silver Arrows from surging past as both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were on newer rubber.
Asked how close he thinks he was to another top-three finish, Piastri said: “Pretty close until I got behind the Mercedes, and then I realized that they were on a mission.
“It would have been, I think, incredibly tough to keep them behind all the way to the end – especially being sort of the first car in the firing line for them.
“I tried my best to stay in front, but I think just on the new tyres they were clearly a lot quicker than everybody.”
Mercedes has been unlocking gradual improvements since a below-par start to the term and a revised front wing introduced in Monaco has extracted more potential.
The German marque emerged as the pacesetting team in the final practice hour and Russell then followed that with a fine run to pip Max Verstappen to pole position.
While Piastri revealed McLaren suspected Mercedes would be competitive in Montreal, he has hinted that it is unsure whether its rival’s speed was condition-specific.
“I think the fact that they were fast wasn’t a massive surprise,” Piastri contended. “I think that they were so fast was.
“In FP3, I think with Lewis’ lap, we were scratching our heads. I think we worked out why after the session, but during the session, we were never going to get close to that.
“Even in Q2, when George did an 11.7 and I did a 12.1 or 12.2, I wasn’t going to find half a second. So, I think they’ve been very quick this weekend.
“I think they’ve switched on the tyres well. And I think you kind of saw on the inters that that hurt them a little bit at certain points.
“So, yeah, it was maybe just a stronger weekend for them. But it wasn’t totally unexpected.
“I think Monaco, they looked very strong at certain points. And yeah, I think this weekend, they’ve been very strong.”
Piastri sustained a glancing blow with Russell as the two tussled over third into the last chicane on Lap 63 in a clash which saw the Briton cut across the escape road
“I need to see it a bit more,” Piastri expressed. “I think it’s an incredibly tough corner to go two wide in. And, yeah, you need to be very brave to go around the outside.
“In the end he got past anyway. So, I don’t think it really changed the result, but hopefully it was entertaining.”
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