Piastri debriefs on “up-and-down day” in Spain

Oscar Piastri recovered from an “up-and-down” opening session to end Friday on a high in Barcelona, finding strong pace in FP2 as he builds confidence heading into the rest of a crucial Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

Piastri began his Spanish Grand Prix weekend with a few early laps on the hard compound tyre, clocking the second-fastest time on his initial run as the field worked through key aerodynamic updates under the latest flexi-wing directive.

After dipping into the 1m15s, Piastri returned to the McLaren garage for a lengthy stint of setup tweaks and data analysis — a common sight across the pitlane, where most teams were heavily focused on evaluating revised components.

For McLaren, the process was made slightly smoother, having already trialled this weekend’s front-wing on Lando Norris’ car earlier in the season.

When he rejoined the session near the halfway mark, the Australian couldn’t quite match the flying pace of teammate Norris, falling half a second short of the #4’s benchmark position on his next flying lap.

That deficit remained when the field moved to soft tyre runs, with Piastri managing a best of 1:14.294s to slot into fifth on the leaderboard — over half a second behind Norris. 

He wrapped up the session with high-fuel race simulations and pitstop practice in the final ten minutes, finishing FP1 in P5 as McLaren turned its attention to race simulations and practice starts to round out the opening hour of practice in Barcelona.

It’s been a bit of an up-and-down day, I think, ending on P1 is good, but our competitors look quick,” Piastri said after FP2. 

“I think Verstappen’s been quick all day, Ferrari have been there, Mercedes popped up at the end, so, it’s gonna be a tight battle tomorrow I think, but definitely still some things to try and work on.”

The Australian added that seeing Red Bull up there on the timesheets was “not necessarily” a surprise. 

“I think we definitely expected Red Bull to be quick, so that’s not a big surprise, but just trying to make the car a bit faster, really, that’s all,” he said.

“So, I think we’ve tried a few things today, some have been good, some have been not so good and we’re learning, so I think it’s been a good day.”

Piastri kicked off the second hour of practice with a pitlane start and an opening stint on the preferred medium compound, fighting through the traffic to begin his run. 

His first flying lap clocked in at 1:13.987s — the fastest final sector of the field — prompting a cheeky “I should drift the car more often” over team radio.

After completing six laps, the Australian retreated to the garage as the session settled into a quiet phase, but he quickly put his subdued FP1 behind him with a commanding return. 

Purple sectors followed as Piastri pieced together a clean lap to post a new benchmark of 1:12.760s at the session’s halfway point.

From there, the focus shifted to longer runs, with McLaren bolting on a fresh set of mediums after filling the tank with a high-fuel load. 

Despite dropping down the order, Piastri racked up 15 laps of race simulation with a consistent pace around the 1:21.2s mark — his running uninterrupted by any incidents. 

A final switch to the softs in the closing seconds allowed him to complete Friday with a practice start on the grid, capping off a strong recovery from a challenging FP1.

His focus now shifts to Qualifying Day at the Spanish Grand Prix, with the hour shootout a deceptively important one for the Australian’s 2025 title campaign.

The final hour of practice will kick off at 20:30 AEST, followed by Qualifying at 00:00 AEST.

Image: Formula 1

2025 Spanish Grand Prix Schedule:

Friday, May 30:

FP1: 21:30 – 22:30

Saturday, May 31:

FP2: 01:00 – 02:00

FP3: 20:30 – 21:30

Sunday, June 01:

Quali: 00:00 – 01:00

Race: 23:00

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