Oscar Piastri admits McLaren has no answer to Mercedes’ six-tenths sector gap

Oscar Piastri is not expecting an epiphany from McLaren that would help it find the six-tenths it’s losing to Mercedes in the final sector at the Shanghai circuit.

George Russell and Mercedes dominated Friday’s running at the Chinese Grand Prix, where the championship leader was quickest in FP1, and quickest in every one of the Sprint Qualifying sessions on his way to pole position.

Oscar Piastri says McLaren has no answer to Mercedes sector-three advantage

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Russell claimed pole, making it two from two in the 2026 season, when he laid down a 1:31.520 to beat his teammate Kimi Antonelli.

Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris was Mercedes’ nearest challenger in third place, however, he was 0.621s slower than Russell. Piastri qualified sixth, just under a tenth behind his teammate.

“It was reasonable,” he said of his qualifying lap. “I think the step in grip from the medium to the soft was pretty big.

“But yeah, obviously the gap to Mercedes is pretty impressive, so some things for us to try and work on, but I think the car felt pretty good.

“It was a pretty decent lap. So yeah, I don’t think there was too much left.”

But despite a decent lap, Piastri was 0.704s slower than Russell.

Although Piastri set the fastest time in sector 1, a 23.913 which was 0.049s faster than Russell, Mercedes came to the fore in sector two before Russell blitzed the competition in sector three.

The Briton put in a 39.989s, which was almost four-tenths faster than the nearest non-Mercedes driver, Charles Leclerc, and was 0.529s faster than Piastri’s best.

The Australian admits McLaren doesn’t have an answer for that.

“No,” Piastri bluntly put it.

“I think sector one we seemed good, obviously. 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.”

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His team-mate Lando Norris admitted P3 behind the Mercedes pairing was the best McLaren could hope for right now.

“I’m just happy with it, with the result,” said the reigning world champion. “I’ve not seen what I lost and gained and whatever.

“But P3 is as good as we can do for the time being.

“I’m pretty happy to be both of Ferraris today, because they seem pretty good the whole day. You know, satisfied. Good position for tomorrow.

“Certainly, things have been better this weekend, just because the track’s a lot more simple from that side of things, from a power unit side of things. So everyone kind of falls in line a bit more.

“But we certainly seem to get a good amount out of it at the end, and it was close. So a good lap put me in a good position.”

With race starts a big issue at the start of this season as drivers struggle to find the ideal launch configuration with their new engines, Norris is hoping to challenge Russell and Antonelli off the line. However, he accepts that won’t be easy.

“I don’t expect them to get bad starts, to be honest. For years, they’ve been one of the best starters,” he explained.

“It’s an opportunity, for sure. I think they know what they did wrong last weekend in Melbourne, and they’ll probably be fine tomorrow, but you never know.

“It’s a good opportunity. It’s the easiest place to ever take because off the line. So we’ll see what we can do.”

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