Oscar Piastri offers cunning George Russell idea in expected Baku brawl

Oscar Piastri has quipped that he will attach a "tow bar" to the back of George Russell's dominant Mercedes in an expected tough Azerbaijan GP fight. 

Piastri secured third on the grid in Baku, but was 0.838s down on Mercedes' Russell who recorded the largest pole margin in over three years, as he crushed the field to secure P1 after team-mate Kimi Antonelli hit a wall in Q1 and will start 16th. 

Piastri, who was just 0.001s slower than Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in the fight for a front-row berth, is in a McLaren MCL40 machine which has struggled with straight-line speed all season, with the 2.2km-long Baku straight exposing this weakness in the package.

Elsewhere around the lap, the McLaren is more competitive, meaning Piastri is engaged in the fight with the Ferraris, Red Bulls and sister McLaren of Lando Norris, who goes from fifth, in the fight behind Russell. 

So dominant has the W17 been, Piastri came up with a cunning idea to ensure he can keep Russell honest during the grand prix. 

"If he’s got a tow bar that I can hook onto the back of, maybe," Piastri quipped when asked by media, including RacingNews365, if he could challenge Russell.

"We’ll see what we can do. I think the Mercedes look incredibly quick here, but I think everyone else looks like they’re in a similar-ish kind of pack. 

"Our race pace looked pretty good [in practice], to be honest. So, yeah, I think we can hang on and battle in the pack behind George, and we'll see what lap Kimi starts coming through as well." 

The article continues below. 

Piastri primed in P3 for Azerbaijan GP

Turning to his own performance, Piastri spoke of how the car "came alive" during a tricky session to extract potential. 

"I think some laps here and there have been strong, but it’s been a lot in between that haven’t been very strong, and I feel like we’ve been reasonable at points, but our car needs some specific things, and trying to find those things on a street circuit is really tough," he said.

"In qualifying we just come alive a little bit more, everything becomes a little bit easier, and it’s a bit easier for us to get the pace out of the car. But, no, on a personal level I feel like we’ve been building up well and, yeah, was pretty happy with my lap in Q3."