Oscar Piastri believes McLaren locking out the second row of the grid for the Hungarian GP shows the team is in the fight at the front of the F1 field.

Piastri will line up fourth for Sunday’s race, backing up the improved form both papaya machines demonstrated in Silverstone two weeks ago.

That performance came off a promising display in Austria, though the similarities between the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone cut this weekend out as the ultimate litmus test.

“I think we were optimistic – well, I was optimistic anyway, that we could be still in the fight with the teams we were around last weekend; maybe not at the front of that pack, but I think we’ve shown today that we can still be there,” Piastri said when asked if he expected to be fast this weekend.

“Wasn’t the best of Q3 laps for myself, so I’m quite happy to still be in fourth, but I think behind us it’s been incredibly tight. If I was one-tenth slower, I’d be 10th and saying we’re not the second quickest team or third quickest team.

“It’s been a good confirmation that we can come to another track, very different conditions, and still be quick.”

Upgrades introduced over the Austrian and British Grands Prix have transformed the car’s performance.

Load has been added across both axles, increasing its overall aerodynamic grip without changing its handling characteristics.

The upshot of that is a car that is easier on its tyres, which leads to stronger race pace – a theory borne out two weekends ago and one Piastri is optimistic of seeing again on Sunday.

“I think we had some doubts, for sure, at Silverstone that we’d be able to back it up in the race,” Piastri said when asked about race pace by Speedcafe.com.

“If anything, we were almost quicker in the race than relative to where we were in qualifying.

“We’ll see. It’ll be a very, very good test for us if we can be strong tomorrow.

“It’ll be a hot race, a very high deg race. If we’re going to be strong tomorrow, then I think we can be very optimistic that we should be pretty good [at] most of the places we go to.”