Piastri: “We’ll see how many sandbags come out tomorrow”

Oscar Piastri’s 2024 season has gotten off to a near-perfect start in Bahrain, with the McLaren driver “in the mix” after finishing both of Thursday’s practice sessions within the top five. 

Piastri’s first official session of 2024 was a positive one, with the Woking-based team opting to send their drivers out on the soft compound tyre midway through FP1.

As the first C3-runner to set a lap, Piastri immediately jumped to the top of the order with a time of 1:33.113s.

Ultimately, however, the #81 was demoted by his teammate who went two-tenths quicker. 

“It was a good session,” Piastri said at the end of the day.

“I felt like we were pretty competitive in both low- and high-fuel running. 

“It always feels a bit pathetic blaming the wind on stuff but, yeah, it’s difficult out there when it’s windy.

“These cars have such a different balance and such a different downforce depending on what the wind is doing, so, definitely made it tricky out there, and I think tomorrows more of the same.”

Piastri finished in P3 during FP1 at the Bahrain GP. Image: Andy Hone / LAT Images.

In FP2, times were much more representative with conditions similar to those expected during tonight’s Qualifying session, and with run plans across the board coinciding. 

Piastri remained well and truly within the mix throughout the session, outperforming Max Verstappen’s fastest time by 67 milliseconds. 

The young Aussie ended the session in P5, with only the Mercedes duo and the two Spaniards ahead of his 1:30.784s. 

“It will be interesting to see what the grid is like when all the sandbags are gone, but I think we’re about where we expected to be and we’re in a good place going into tomorrow.”

“Still a bit inconsistent and up and down, so it’s a bit hard to know exactly how we’re going to fare but it looks like a bit of a similar story for everyone.”

“We’re kind of in the mix,” Piastri said, adding that, interestingly, “Red Bull don’t look quite as quick as [they] thought”.

“Mercedes look quick, Fernando [Alonso] looks quick so, yeah, always a bit hard to judge on a Friday.

“We’ll see how many sandbags come out tomorrow, but it’s a lot closer than I expected.”

Piastri during FP2 at the Bahrain GP. Image: Steven Tee / LAT Images.

As for Piastri’s teammate, the order of the second session saw Lando Norris down in last place, not reflecting the pace of the MCL38.

Norris was unable to complete a flying lap on the soft tyre, however, successfully ran alongside Piastri as they undertook the high-fuel runs. 

Piastri was one of a few drivers setting long-run laps within the 1m 36s timeframe, with the Red Bull duo also achieving such a feat. 

“I think we’re sort of around the point, and I think with the teams we’re around, being near the podium or near tenth is very much a possibility.

“It’ll be interesting to see what we’re like tomorrow, but I think it was a pretty solid day overall.”

Tonight, the #81 will have his sights set on a healthy starting position at the pointy end of the top ten, with qualifying starting at 3:00 AM, AEST.

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