Piastri buoyed by ‘nice turnaround’ for P3 grid slot in Canada after ‘tough weekend so far’

Oscar Piastri cut an upbeat figure after Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, despite the McLaren driver being outpaced by Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

McLaren experienced a tricky trio of practice sessions around the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, with Lando Norris describing Friday as their “worst” of the season so far, and Piastri hitting the wall during FP3.

When it came to the grid decider, Piastri managed to come away with a second-row slot, losing out to Russell and Verstappen after the pair opted for medium tyres rather than softs during their decisive Q3 efforts.

MONTREAL, QUEBEC - JUNE 14: Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes on — Piastri came away with P3 during Qualifying after a difficult time in practice for McLaren

“To be honest, after how practice went, I’m pretty happy with myself at the moment – it was a nice turnaround,” the Australian commented afterwards.

“There’s always the question, ‘Do you want the medium or do you want the soft for Q3?’ We went with the soft because we were having a lot of problems and we just wanted to keep things consistent.”

AS IT HAPPENED: Russell takes stunning pole position for Canadian GP

Piastri went on to talk about the struggles McLaren have been facing this weekend, underlined by team mate Lando Norris enduring a messy Q3 and winding up in seventh position.

“There’s definitely been some question marks,” Piastri expanded. “I don’t think we fully understand why… the problems with the car have been pretty clear, but it’s not been the easiest to find a solution to them.

‘I’m honestly pretty happy with that’ insists Piastri despite missing out on the front row

“I think in Qualifying things felt a bit better, still not perfect but considerably better. Ultimately, I think we were back into the position we should be.

“It’s just that Mercedes have looked very quick this weekend, Max has looked quick, we’ve potentially looked a little bit slower, and then you add in the medium tyre and it raises questions.

“It’s very hard to know, so I think we were back into our normal, or relatively normal position. It’s just that the competition has been very strong this weekend.”

Piastri will head into Sunday’s race in Montreal 10 points clear of Norris in the Drivers’ Championship standings, and a further 39 points up on Verstappen.