Verstappen claimed pole by 0.2s from Charles Leclerc, but it wasn’t a crushing performance, with the Dutchman having to work hard for the result.

Following pre-season testing, Red Bull Racing was the runaway favourite for both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, with suggestions the RB20 enjoyed as much as a second advantage over the field.

That has not proved to be the case across the three practices and opening qualifying session of the season.

The two days of running in Bahrain painted a more competitive picture, with Red Bull Racing and Ferrari the two fastest teams, followed by a gaggle that includes Mercedes, Aston Martin, and McLaren.

“I think we’re definitely in the fight, in that pack,” Piastri assessed.

“I think even Red Bull’s maybe didn’t look quite as good as what we feared, which is good.

“But yeah, I think we’re definitely in that mix.”

McLaren emerged as a front-runner following an aggressive development programme in 2023, which transformed the MCL60 from one of the slowest cars on the grid to one of the fastest.

However, that improvement could not address some issues, with low-speed performance a weakness that persisted throughout last season.

And so it remains in the 2024 car, the MCL38 struggling with mid-corner rotation in slower speed corners.

McLaren has made progress in others, but so too have its rivals.

The stark difference this year is that there were no shock performances in testing, whereas a year ago Aston Martin marked itself out from the pack.

As such, Piastri suggests the order remains broadly what was seen at the end of 2023.

“Honestly, I think it’s very similar to how we ended last year,” he opined.

“I think when we go to Saudi next week, could it be a bit of a different picture again. When we go to Melbourne, Japan, Miami, I expect it to chop and change like it did last year.

“For us, the fact that we’re starting here on a pretty positive note in terms of pace – the positions maybe don’t reflect it as far as we want…

“I think I said this last week, if we had put Bahrain at the end of the season last year, we probably still wouldn’t have been that optimistic.

“So I think the fact that we’ve started this year in a decent place around here is a good sign.”

Piastri qualified eighth for Saturday night’s Bahrain Grand Prix, his best 0.504s off that managed by pole-sitter Verstappen.

His McLaren team-mate, Lando Norris, will line up alongside him on the fourth row of the grid, the Englishman lamenting his final run in Qualifying 3, suggesting it could have cost him a front-row berth.

Looking to the race, McLaren displayed an encouraging long-run pace with Piastri hopeful of a stronger result in the race itself.

“We looked pretty decent yesterday,” he noted.

“But it looked very close again. I think qualifying has proven just how close the four or five times are towards the front.

“I think it’ll be a similar kind of story in the race in terms of pace.

“Making progress is not going to be easy, and I think that’s going to be true from where we are all the way up to the front – apart from Red Bull, I think they’ll be stronger in the race, where they normally are.

“So I think we can make progress,” he added.

“Here is a track you can overtake and strategies play a very big element, but I think today’s proven that the pace difference between a lot of cars is very small.

“I don’t expect them to change massively in the race, at the moment.”

The Bahrain Grand Prix begins at 18:00 local time (02:00 AEDT Sunday morning).