The McLaren driver briefly led the race before a mid-race Safety Car swung the advantage towards Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, but Piastri was left satisfied with both his own performance and the team’s execution across the weekend.
“I think this weekend was probably one of my best weekends in F1,” Piastri told Speedcafe and other media in Suzuka.
“I think we felt like I hit the ground running in practice. Qualifying I think we did a really good job of getting the car into the window I was happy with on Friday. I felt like I drove well in qualifying.”
Despite ultimately losing out to Antonelli after the Safety Car, brought out due to a heavy crash by the Haas of Oliver Bearman, Piastri believed there was little more he or McLaren could have done.
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“And the race there wasn’t anything more we could have done,” he said.
“We had a good start. The pace was good. I felt like I was strategic or smart with how I used the boost and how I managed that side of racing. Our strategy was good. We didn’t blink too early.
“Obviously the Safety Car was a shame, but I think as race weekends go, we couldn’t have done any better than that.
“So for me I’m very happy with the performance that I put in. Very happy with the performance from the whole team.”
Piastri’s race was built on a strong launch from third on the grid, allowing him to surge into the lead ahead of the Mercedes pair at the start.
While it looked impressive from the outside, the Australian felt the move itself was relatively straightforward.
“I thought it was good, but I didn’t think it was super special,” he explained.
“I saw Kimi go into wheel spin straight away. I didn’t really see what George was doing.
“Obviously having to go around Kimi meant that the rest of my start was a little bit compromised.
“But, yeah. It clearly was good enough to get into the lead which was great. Clearly that was a good strength of ours today.”
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The McLaren driver credited the team’s preparation and execution across the weekend as a major factor in the result, explaining that the car remained in a strong operating window from practice through to the race.
“I think this weekend we just did a really good job of optimising what we had,” he said.
“I think from practice, we’re in a good window with the car and in FP2. We managed to get it back in that window for qualifying.
“I think we had a real good understanding of what we wanted from the power unit and how we had to kind of dial it in for the qualifying grip level.
“And then even today we did a lot of work on the starts.
“I think our starts through all the practice sessions were really strong. And then I think the pace was probably a positive surprise.”
That pace allowed Piastri to control the early stages of the race and even pull away slightly from George Russell before the pit stops, something he admitted had not been expected.
“I think having clean air probably helped quite a lot at the start, but we did a good job and I could pull away from George a little bit right before the stops,” he said.
“And yeah, I think the strategy was good as well. So I think we just nailed everything.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough for the win. But I think at the moment a result like today is as good as a win for us.”
The Safety Car ultimately changed the complexion of the race, handing Antonelli the lead after the Italian gained effectively a free pit stop during the interruption.
While unsure if victory was realistically possible without it, Piastri admitted he would have liked the chance to find out.
“I think I need to look back and see whether Kimi was quicker than George or a similar pace,” he said.
“I think if he was the same pace as George, then it would’ve been a pretty stressful afternoon because I probably would have had both of them right on my gearbox.
“But, yeah, I mean, I think once Kimi had clean air, clearly he was a lot faster than me.
“I’m not sure we would have won the race, but I certainly would have loved to have found out.”
Piastri said the biggest surprise was being able to keep Russell behind him for extended periods, even after the Mercedes driver returned to second during the pit cycle.
“Once he got back into second, I thought that he was going to come past in half a lap and I was going to settle in for second and wait for Kimi to do the same,” he said.
“But the fact that we could be so close to Mercedes, and beat one of them, I think that was a much more pleasant surprise.”
Piastri also acknowledged that McLaren had expected Ferrari to be a close rival, with Charles Leclerc ultimately finishing behind him on the podium.
“I think we felt like we could maybe stay ahead of Ferrari,” he said.
“I think looking back at qualifying I think clearly something wrong happened with the deployment for both Charles and Lewis.
“So I think the gap I had in qualifying flattered us a bit.
“We thought that would be a challenge. I think Charles and I had very similar pace through most of the race.
“So that was about what we expected.”
While encouraged by the result, Piastri admitted the scale of Antonelli’s eventual winning margin showed McLaren still had work to do to close the gap to Mercedes.
“Yes,” he said when asked if Mercedes were beatable.
“I think we knew from last year, or we know from last year, that even when you have the best car, you still need to operate at an incredibly high level.
“And I think today on our side we did a really good job of that. But I think it’s interesting to see when someone else has the fastest car then it’s not that straightforward.
“But we’re under no illusion. We did everything right this weekend and we still got beaten by 15 seconds.
“So we’ve got a pretty big gap to fill. I’m confident that we can get there. But we’ve still got some work to do.”
Piastri’s second place moves him into sixth in the drivers’ standings, 51 points behind championship leader Antonelli.
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