Oscar Piastri finished the Formula 1 Italian GP in fifth place and left Monza satisfied with the performance shown. The Australian stated that he had his most encouraging pace in some time, despite acknowledging Mercedes’ superiority in the race.
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Piastri assessed that the weekend was one of the most positive for him recently, but highlighted that the on-track battle required constant attention. The position swaps with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen made it difficult to open a gap, forcing the McLaren driver to carefully manage every move.
“It was definitely the best weekend I’ve had in some time, and my pace was more encouraging,” said Piastri. About the race, he explained that the alternating effect between the drivers made the battle particularly complicated. “It was necessary to be quite smart in how you conducted the battle to avoid losing time.”
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Despite the positive assessment, Piastri considered that McLaren was only the third fastest team in Monza: “Mercedes was clearly much faster than everyone, and even Max had more pace than we expected,” he added.
Given this scenario, Piastri considered fifth place an important result for the team, and close to the maximum possible this Sunday: “It was a good result for the team and probably the best result we could have achieved,” he concluded.
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