Piastri feeling positive ahead of “hard-fought weekend”

Speaking after a day of mixed conditions, Oscar Piastri says he is “expecting it to be a pretty hard-fought weekend” in Zandvoort after McLaren finished alongside a competitive Mercedes outfit in Friday’s practice sessions.

Rain during the wet FP1 session was a deterrent for Piastri who, despite venturing out for a few exploratory laps, remained without a time until the final ten minutes.

Ditching the wet and intermediate tyres as a dry line developed, McLaren sent their drivers out on slick tyres, heading the pack of equally reactive drivers.

The #81’s first time, a 1:18.315s, was unsurprisingly faster than the intermediate times, however, nowhere near what would eventually become the benchmark.

On his next tour around the Circuit Zandvoort, P1 was the target.

Piastri achieved the quickest time, putting two-tenths between himself and Lando Norris, however, as the chequered flag was waved, he was only quick enough for P7.

In the second session, the rain was no longer a concern, however, strong tailwinds and gusts remained a threat at the seaside circuit and long with changed visibility.

Returning for a visor change after being blinded by the beaming sun, Piastri soon set off to test his revised setup across both long- and short-runs on the soft and medium compounds.

He stood out on the C3, skyrocketing to the top of the order with a time of 1:10.763s.

“Yeah, a pretty solid day,” Piastri said.

“FP1 was a little bit tricky, but FP2 looked good.”

He ended the final session with the second fastest time of the day, wedging himself in between the flying Mercedes duo headed by George Russell.

Speaking after the session, Piastri noted the silver arrows as their competition for this weekend, with both teams coming into the weekend looking to build upon their strings of recent successes.

In the opening session that was topped by Norris, Lewis Hamilton also occupied third place, while 61 milliseconds were all that stood between Piastri and Russell in the second hour of practice.

“Our one-lap pace looked pretty good, I need to look at our long-run pace, but no, it looked pretty solid,” the #81 said.

“Mercedes looked quick again, so I’m expecting it to be a pretty hard-fought weekend.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38 during practice at the Dutch GP. Image: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images.

This weekend, McLaren isn’t only fuelled by momentum and motivation, but a haul of new upgrades as well. 

The MCL38 sports visible alterations to the front floor edge and brake ducts, with the front and rear suspension sheaths also being realigned.

In terms of track-specific adjustments, the team has brought a new rear wing arrangement accompanied by a supposedly more powerful beam wing.

After one hour of clear running and one hour of mixed conditions, Piastri is feeling positive about the results of the upgrades.

“It was pretty good [with the upgraded car], I mean it doesn’t feel massively different and it should be a bit faster hopefully.

“All went smoothly, all went to plan so yeah, hopefully it just makes us a little bit faster from now.”

Heading into Saturday’s all-important qualifying session, Piastri will hope to line up further towards the front of the grid compared to 2023.

He started last year’s Dutch Grand Prix from eighth on the grid, losing a position during the chaotic 72-lap race to finish in P9. 

But despite that, Piastri’s recent form is leaning towards a better result this time out.

“It’s nice to be back in the car and it’s always fun driving around here,” he said.

“It’s been a good first day.”

The Team Principal at McLaren, Andrea Stella echoed Piastri’s positive sentiments, saying “day one in the Netherlands seems very encouraging” for the papaya outfit. 

“Zandvoort today allowed us to test the car in all conditions, going from the Wet to the Intermediate to the dry tyres in FP1, and then in FP2 we had good running on the Soft and Medium tyres to compare them with a view to their potential usage in the race,” Stella said.

“It’s been a very useful day, not only for race preparation but also for gathering good data and performing checks on the aerodynamic upgrades we have this weekend. 

“We’ll now focus on maximising our performance for the rest of the weekend. 

“We know the weather is a variable, so we need to be ready for anything.”

The forecast currently predicts rain and extreme winds for the upcoming FP3 and Qualifying sessions at Zandvoort tonight, adding an extra element of the unknown to the already exciting battle for pole. 

FP3 kicks off at 7:30 PM, followed by Qualifying at 11:00 PM.

Image: Andy Hone / LAT Images

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