‘Our competitors look quick’ – Piastri predicts ‘tight battle’ during Qualifying in Barcelona

Oscar Piastri has predicted that Saturday’s Qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix will be a “tight battle” after McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari all showed strong pace during Friday’s practice sessions in Barcelona.

The Australian topped the order in Friday’s second practice session, following on from team mate Lando Norris’ success in the day’s earlier outing.

His 1m 12.760s effort was 0.286s faster than George Russell’s Mercedes, while Max Verstappen and Norris registered identical times in third and fourth, trailing Piastri by 0.310s. Charles Leclerc was the fastest Ferrari in fifth, half a second off the pace.

Assessing his day, Piastri said: “It’s been a bit of an up and down day, obviously ending on an up, which is good. But our competitors look quick.

BARCELONA, SPAIN - MAY 30: Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes on — Piastri topped the timesheets in Friday’s second practice session in Spain

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

Asked if the closeness of rival teams was a concern, he added: “Not necessarily. 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.

HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from FP2 in Barcelona as Piastri heads the timesheets

“We tried a few things today – some have been good, some have not been so good. We’re learning, so I think it’s been a good day.”

Despite being unable to find similar levels of improvement to his team mate, Norris was equally upbeat about his prospects for the weekend.

BARCELONA, SPAIN - MAY 30: Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes on — Norris set an identical lap time in FP2 to Verstappen, ending up fourth in the order

“A decent Friday,” Norris summarised. “I felt better in FP1 than I did in FP2, but we were trying things and we’ll keep trying to improve for tomorrow.

“It’s tiny things. I think something we do always very well is just turn up with a good baseline and find it hard to improve from that point onwards, which is a good thing, not a bad thing.

«It just allows us to try different directions, different things and just try to get a bit of a feel.”