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Piastri: McLaren should be strong

Piastri

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: April 4, 2024

Just six months on, Oscar Piastri returns to the scene of his first Formula 1 Grand Prix podium and believes McLaren should be “pretty strong” again.

Despite already securing a special second place in the Spa Sprint and coming close in Silverstone, it was not until Piastri’s 16th race he stood on the podium and those happy memories were in Suzuka.

The Australian dropped jaws in qualifying, putting the #81 McLaren on the front row alongside Max Verstappen with an impressive 1:29.458.

Although McLaren teammate Lando Norris jumped him off the line and secured second, it was still a mighty drive by the Aussie being one of the rare rookies to appear on the podium.

Now just six months on Piastri returns to Suzuka in a confident space having come close to another podium on home turf in Australia where he finished fourth.

Thanks to the MCL60’s pace, Piastri is confident the MCL38 can also excel around the snaky Suzuka layout.

“I think compared to some of the other circuits we have been to it is not that different (to Albert Park) in terms of how it will hopefully suit us,” he said.

“I think we were a little bit surprised with our competitiveness in Melbourne and hopefully we will be positively surprised again here.

“It was a good track for us last year but other teams, namely Ferrari, will be more competitive than last year.

“I think we should be pretty strong, but just how strong we are we will wait and see.”

Piastri sits a strong fifth in the championship as the leading non Red Bull or Ferrari driver with back to back fourth place finishes and 28 points.

He only holds a one-point advantage over Norris and will be looking to hit the ground running when FP1 kicks off the Japanese Grand Prix at 13.30 AEDT.

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