The Australian finished eighth in second practice at the Hungaroring after sitting out FP1, ending the session 1.372s behind Lewis Hamilton and almost nine tenths away from teammate Lando Norris.
Piastri handed his car to reigning Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli during opening practice as McLaren completed another of its mandatory rookie appearances.
The decision left Piastri with only one hour of running on Friday at a circuit he believed had already been made difficult by strong winds and inconsistent grip levels.
“Very, very challenging,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1 when asked to sum up his session.
“I think the track conditions are pretty challenging out there. Very windy.
“The new parts of the track are not very grippy. And they’re kind of not breaking apart, but they’re very worn, so it’s just a very challenging circuit at the moment.
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“And yeah, obviously missing a practice session has made it pretty tough.”
Piastri ran off the circuit during his opening timed lap before gradually closing the gap to the leading drivers during the medium-tyre phase of the session.
His qualifying simulation was then interrupted when Franco Colapinto lost control at the final corner and spun his Alpine backwards into the barriers, bringing out the only red flag of FP2.
Piastri eventually recorded a 1m20.101s to finish 0.873s behind Norris, who placed third behind the dominant Ferraris of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
The result left the McLaren driver facing additional work ahead of Saturday, although he will receive the team’s latest aerodynamic developments for final practice.
McLaren arrived in Hungary with a new floor and several associated components designed to improve the MCL40 under braking and through corner entry, but the parts were only fitted to Norris’ car during Friday’s running.
The team also used opening practice to evaluate an experimental rear wing concept, although the design is not expected to be raced this weekend.
Piastri said the early feedback from Norris had matched McLaren’s expectations but admitted the package had not produced a dramatic change in the behaviour of the car.
“I think on Lando’s car, they’ve been working as we expected. Which is good,” he said.
“I don’t think they’ve completely changed the car, which obviously we weren’t expecting, but would have been nice.
“We’ll see what it’s like on my car tomorrow and hopefully we can have a successful day.”
Norris finished 0.499s behind Hamilton in FP2 after initially moving to the top of the order when the leading drivers began their soft-tyre runs.
The reigning world champion had been around two tenths ahead of his benchmark on another attempt before Colapinto’s crash forced him to abandon the lap, suggesting McLaren had more pace available than the final gap to Ferrari indicated.
That represented a significant improvement from opening practice, when Norris could manage only 11th, nearly two seconds behind the fastest time, while Fornaroli finished 16th in Piastri’s car.
Hamilton ultimately led Leclerc by 0.148s as Ferrari completed a sweep of Friday practice, with Max Verstappen and George Russell the only other drivers to finish within one second of the fastest time in FP2.
Piastri acknowledged Ferrari appeared to hold the early advantage but believed Norris had shown McLaren could still challenge near the front if it maximised the remainder of the weekend.
“I don’t know yet,” he said when asked where McLaren could fight in qualifying.
“I think the Ferrari’s looked very quick in both sessions. But I think Lando looked competitive in that one especially.
“I think the Mercedes is very hard to read. So let’s wait and see tomorrow. But I think if we execute a good day, then it seems like there can be a lot up for grabs.”
FP3 in Hungary gets underway at 8.30pm AEST.
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