McLaren driver Oscar Piastri clinched a 2nd place finish in the F1 Chinese GP Sprint Race after running in P3 for most of the event as he managed to look after his tyres better than the current World Champion.
The Australian driver battled it out with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen until the end, in which he got the upper hand. However he was not able to catch up with sprint winner Lewis Hamilton in the final laps of the race.
Speaking after the sprint, Piastri said all hopes are high as getting the upper hand in the battle with Verstappen during the Chinese GP Sprint gives encouragement that it’s a sign for the pace they’ll have in the Grand Prix.
“Yeah, I think it was a really productive Sprint, obviously. Finishing second is always a great result. Yeah, I think I really learnt a lot in that one, and I think as much as the result is nice, I think the way I got the result, like you said, is an encouraging thing.
“So yeah, we didn’t quite have enough pace for Lewis out front, but I think we’ve got some good ideas for this afternoon and tomorrow and see if we can go one spot better.”
Looking for qualifying gains against a very quick Lewis Hamilton
Onward to afternoon’s qualifying session, the 23-year-old says that they need to be at their best to compete with the pack, as Ferrari seems to have rapid pace in the hands of Lewis Hamilton.
“Hopefully we don’t have as much traffic, though. That’s the plan. So we’ll see what we can do this afternoon to start a bit higher and go from there.
“But yeah, I think we’ve got good pace in the car. We’ve clearly got a lot of competition this weekend. The Ferraris look pretty rapid, so we’ve got to be on our best form.”
