Oscar Piastri offers honest verdict about putting ‘pressure’ on Lando Norris in Brazilian Grand Prix

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Oscar Piastri has shared his hopes for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix after falling short of his teammate in qualifying.

Piastri will start the race in Interlagos from P4, with his McLaren teammate Lando Norris putting himself on pole position.

Norris looked strong during the qualifying session and, despite an initial lock-up during his first Q3 flying lap, was able to perform when it counted most.

Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc split the two McLaren drivers, with the Mercedes rookie outqualifying his teammate George Russell for the third time this season.

Piastri lost the championship lead to Norris following the Brit’s victory in Mexico, with the Aussie now under pressure to keep up.

Although the P4 start is not completely awful for Piastri, he will have to ensure he has a clean race after crashing out in Saturday’s Sprint race.

Oscar Piastri says ‘Everything felt much trickier’ after Brazil qualifying

Oscar Piastri identified what went wrong during his Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying, telling Sky Sports F1: “just didn’t go any faster [at the end of Q3]. That was the biggest thing.”

The Aussie, who had previously led the drivers’ championship for 15 races before losing the top spot in Mexico, said that “very different conditions” compared to Friday’s Sprint qualifying made “everything feel much trickier today”.

Piastri was disappointed with his P4 result, but identified that the McLaren had been looking quick on the longer runs this weekend, adding “hopefully I can take advantage of that tomorrow.”

When asked about his chances of catching Norris during Sunday’s race, Piastri told the Sky Sports team: “Ultimately I will try and take whatever opportunities arise and if I can make progress forwards and put some pressure on, I will. But got to get there first.

Abbi Pulling says championship is ‘slipping away from Oscar Piastri’

F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling has said that Piastri’s championship hopes are ‘slowly slipping away’ whilst providing commentary for BBC Sports.

The GB3 race winner told BBC Sports Extra 2: “Oscar Piastri has got a lot on his plate if he wants to get back in this title fight. He’s losing the momentum. Qatar and Abu Dhabi probably suit him more but it’s slowly slipping away.”

Piastri now trails Norris by nine points in the drivers’ championship after the Brit won Saturday’s Sprint race, with the other McLaren driver crashing out at Turn 3.

It was Piastri’s second DNF in a row for the Sprint races after crashing into his teammate at the start of the event in America.