Oscar Piastri claims ‘decent’ McLaren pace as Norris sets Las Vegas GP target

Despite suffering a disrupted Thursday on track at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri said it is clear that “decent” pace lies within the McLaren MCL39.

That being said, Piastri admits that it is hard to know exactly where McLaren sits in the pecking order, after drain cover issues derailed the qualifying simulations in FP2. Teammate Lando Norris meanwhile has declared himself in the pole position battle, as the McLaren duo reach crunch time in their Drivers’ Championship battle.

Oscar Piastri declares ‘decent’ McLaren MCL39 pace

Braking issues got in McLaren’s way during the first hour of practice, while in FP2, it was drain covers. The second and final red flag was thrown with just two minutes left on the clock, leaving several drivers unable to complete their flying lap on the soft tyre.

Norris’ 1:33.602 therefore survived as the FP2-topping time, while Piastri was classified 14th.

Not that this rather unrepresentative result for Piastri unsettled the Australian title hopeful going into qualifying day.

“I think FP1 was pretty good. Some things to work on, but overall, I felt like it was a pretty good session,” he said.

“FP2, yeah, I mean, I did two laps for the whole session. So difficult to know exactly where we sit.

“Clearly the car has got decent pace, but not that many people got a great run on the soft, so a little bit difficult to know exactly where we sit.

“Still, plenty of positives, I think, and plenty of things to look through overnight.”

Piastri was asked whether he felt in a better place with this McLaren challenger one year on from Las Vegas 2024, which proved an underwhelming weekend for the papaya team. Norris was restricted to sixth and Piastri seventh.

“I think so, yes,” Piastri confirmed. “Again, just very difficult to know, because obviously it was a bit wet at the start, the track was evolving a lot, so it’s just difficult to know exactly where everyone sits.

“But we changed a few things into FP2, which seemed to feel pretty good. So yeah, we’ll try and do some more tweaking overnight and see what we’ve got.”

Asked how he is feeling for the rest of the weekend with so many unknowns after Thursday practice, Piastri replied: “I mean, I feel, okay.

“Would I have loved some more laps? Yes. But, I think the track is going to continue to change quite a bit through the rest of the weekend.

“We’ll see what kind of weather we’ve got tomorrow when we get here and take it from there.”

Key F1 2025 details ahead of the Las Vegas GP

? The results of the F1 2025 championship

? The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

Norris, like his teammate, felt reason for optimism over the pace of the MCL39 at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

“Always tricky here,” said the championship leader. “I think we have a better feeling in the car than what we had last year. So that’s a positive and that was felt, I would say, already, like lap one of today.

“So some good feelings. Of course, not a lot of running in the end, not really any high-fuel running. But the pace clearly is there. I think it’s pretty tight between a lot of people, and many people didn’t even get their laps in.

“So apart from that, yeah, I think we made some steps forward from FP1 to FP2, and hopefully we can just do some more from FP2 to FP3.”

Norris declared that “we’re fighting for pole” in Las Vegas, as he looks to take another giant step closer to the Drivers’ Championship crown.

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