Piastri qualifies third in Baku but concedes Mercedes gap makes race win unrealistic

Oscar Piastri qualified third for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on Saturday, but the McLaren driver was under no illusions about his prospects of challenging Mercedes’ George Russell for victory, with the Briton having beaten him by a commanding 0.838 seconds in Q3.

Asked in the post-qualifying press conference whether he could realistically fight Russell in the race, Piastri was wryly honest. “If he’s got a tow bar that I can hook onto the back of, maybe,” he said with a smile. “But yeah, we’ll see what we can do.”

The result was a better-than-expected outcome for McLaren given the difficulties they had endured across practice. Piastri had not finished higher than sixth in any of the three practice sessions, and the weekend was further complicated by a brake issue on Friday morning that forced the team to use cable ties to manage vibrations and avoid losing track time.

“It’s been not an easy weekend, for sure, from a few areas,” Piastri said. “We’ve not been particularly quick. We were also running cable ties on our car through Friday, which is never a great sign. So it’s been a little bit of a tricky one for us.”

Despite those setbacks, McLaren found pace when it mattered. Piastri was briefly fastest after the opening runs in Q3, though he acknowledged that flattered the picture at a circuit that does not particularly suit this year’s car. He was ultimately separated from fourth-placed Charles Leclerc by just 0.001 seconds.

“In qualifying we found a bit of pace,” he said. “It’s not the first time that’s happened to us this year. We seem like we’re a bit on the back foot through practice, we come out in qualifying and we just find that bit extra. I was pretty surprised to see us 1-2 after the first lap of Q3, but unfortunately, we had no hope against George.”

The situation could be further complicated in the race by Kimi Antonelli, Russell’s Mercedes team-mate, who crashed out in Q1 but is expected to carry strong pace on a street circuit where overtaking is relatively straightforward. Piastri may find himself on the defensive as much as the attack.

Still, the Australian struck a cautiously optimistic note about the midfield battle. “The Mercedes look incredibly quick here, but everyone else looks like they’re in a similar-ish kind of pack,” he said. “And our race pace looked pretty good yesterday.”