Piastri hoping to make the most of ‘good pace’ at home

Oscar Piastri will be cheered on by a sea of papaya and he hopes to utilise McLaren’s “good pace” at today’s Australian Grand Prix.

Thanks to Sergio Perez’s good penalty Piastri will start his second home race from fifth on the grid.

It is much higher up than the Brighton boy’s maiden Australian Grand Prix where he started 16th but charged his way to maiden career points in eighth after a wild race that contained three red flags.

When asked about the possibility of being the first Australian to stand on the podium and keep the trophy since the first Australian Grand Prix in the f1 era since 1985, Piastri said he will give it a crack.

“I am excited and it is always very special to race at home.The support has been incredible and hopefully we can put on a good show,” Piastri said during the driver’s parade.

“We will try our best. Our pace has been good this weekend and a bit of a surprise for us.

“Obviously Lando (Norris) is starting third and I am fifth so it won’t take much to get on the podium and if it is anything like last year, anything can happen.

“I think the car had good pace and I think we’ve shown that we’ve got good race pace, so we’ll see what we can do.”

In Qualifying Piastri set the fourth fastest time in Q2 before ending up sixth in the dash for pole with a 1:16.572, 0.657s off pole man Max Verstappen.

Piastri admitted he had “mixed feelings” on qualifying.

“P6 in quali. A decent session, I probably peaked a bit early! Piastri joked.

“I felt like Q2 was very strong and then just didn’t quite replicate it in Q3. So, I’ve got mixed feelings.”

The 2024 Australian Grand Prix is about to begin at 15.00 AEDT.

Photo by Sam Bagnall / LAT Images

2024 Australian Grand Prix schedule (AEDT)

Friday, March 22

Practice 1: 1: L. Norris 2: M. Verstappen 3: G. Russell

Practice 2: 1: C. Leclerc 2: M. Verstappen 3: C. Sainz

Saturday, March 23

Practice 3: 1: C. Leclerc 2: M. Veratappen 3: C. Sainz

Qualifying: 1: M. Verastappen 2: C. Sainz 3: S. Perez

Sunday, March 24

Grand Prix: 15.00

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