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Piastri hopeful McLaren can close gap to 'impressive' Mercedes
Nicholas Quinlan • March 14th, 2026 3:03 am
Having finished 5th during the sprint qualification at the Chinese Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri is hopeful that his McLaren can close the gap to Mercedes throughout the race weekend.
As they did at Albert Park, the Silver Arrows continued to dominate the timesheets around the Shanghai International Circuit.
In both the practice session and in the qualifying for the season’s first Sprint race, the duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli would lock up first and second by a considerable gap.
In both sessions, Russell would claim the fastest time over his Italian teammate.
Qualifying was where the gap between Mercedes and the rest was most prominent, with third-placed Lando Norris being 0.621 seconds behind his fellow Brit, showing why the team had been the constructor championship favourites.
While believing his performance was a satisfactory one, Piastri admitted he was impressed by how Mercedes had performed in the opening two rounds.
“It was reasonable,” the Australian noted.
“I think the step (up) in grip from the mediums to softs was pretty big.
“Obviously, the gap to Mercedes is pretty impressive; so some things for us to try and work on.
“The car felt pretty good. It was a pretty decent lap. So, I don’t think there was too much left.”
But while the gap between Mercedes and the rest of the grid remains a significant challenge to overcome, there were some positives that the 24-year-old will take out from it, such as setting the fastest time through Sector 1.
“No, I think Sector 1, we seemed good,” he added.
“But yeah, six tenths in the last sector is impressive, so we’ll go and have a look at where we’re losing the time.”
The action from Shanghai continues on Saturday with the Sprint race taking place at 2pm AEDT before moving into the main qualifying session, which begins at 6pm.
The race will take place on Sunday from 6pm.
