Piastri backed up his fourth-place finish in the sprint race by qualifying fourth for Sunday’s grand prix, with teammate Lando Norris taking third behind Mercedes pair George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
While Piastri admitted McLaren still lacked the outright pace of Mercedes, he said changing conditions could shake up the race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
“I think we are a bit closer, yes,” Piastri told Sky Sports after qualifying.
“But I don’t think we have the ultimate pace of Mercedes still. The pace they had in the sprint before they started battling was impressive.
“We got closer obviously, but yeah, not quite enough to do more than that.”
Piastri pointed to the predicted weather as a possible factor in helping McLaren close the gap on Sunday.
“We’ll wait and see about the weather,” he said.
“I think that’s probably going be the biggest opportunity. So we’ll wait and see.
“I think our starts were okay but the run is very short to Turn 1 here. So there’s not the same ability to make progress. But we’ll see what we get and go from there.”
The Australian had earlier recovered from losing a place to Lewis Hamilton at the start of the sprint to eventually finish fourth after passing the Ferrari driver on the penultimate lap.
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Piastri said dirty air once again made overtaking difficult despite improving pace as the race unfolded.
“It was a bit tricky just like stuck in dirty air and I couldn’t really do much,” he said after the sprint race.
“I mean even when I got past it was not easy. So I think as the race went on I was getting quicker and quicker compared to Lewis, but yeah, just not an easy way past.”
Asked whether Canada had presented more overtaking difficulties than other circuits this season, Piastri said it had largely been consistent with the wider trend across 2026.
“Not necessarily,” he said.
“I think it’s a similar story to what it has been all year.
“It was definitely tricky to follow and tricky to get ahead for sure. I think here is quite well balanced actually, because overtaking Lewis wasn’t easy.
“So it was good.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella described the day as “encouraging” after the team showed improved pace against Mercedes following recent upgrades to the MCL40.
He added he was pleased McLaren had remained within striking distance of the Brackley squad.
“It’s an encouraging day,” he told Sky Sports.
“The result in the sprint was good in terms of result and the points that we scored and the fact that we could keep up with Mercedes.
“And I think this trend was confirmed in the qualifying session.
“You know the trend is quite consistent. Mercedes is the fastest car. They lock up the first row.
“But we are a little bit closer. Under two tenths of a second.
“The car performs well in the corners. We lose some time in the straights.
“We’ll have to look why we lose time in the straights, however overall I think progress.”
Stella also praised the work done by McLaren in bringing upgrades to the car while hinting more developments were still to come over the next races, adding the forecast rain could improve the team’s chances on Sunday.
“I don’t want to miss any opportunity to thank the team for the efforts in bringing these upgrades,” he said.
“There’s a little bit more that hopefully we will take to the coming races. Especially there’s a couple of items that we will review for the future races.
“So like I say, it’s very encouraging the trend. And tomorrow also, if you think about the race here in Canada, there could be some weather.
“Everything is possible. So we’ll certainly do our best.”
The Canadian Grand Prix starts at 6am AEST Monday (4pm local time).
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