Oscar Piastri sets McLaren demand in 'big step' warning

Oscar Piastri wants McLaren to make a "big step" in performance overnight at the Australian Grand Prix, as he feels his closest rivals will also do so.

The nine-time grand prix winner topped FP2 at his home race, getting the better of the Mercedes pair of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, who rounded out the top three.

It was a topsy-turvy Friday in Melbourne amongst the top four teams, with Ferrari and Red Bull looking stronger in the opening hour of running at Albert Park.

Piastri finished that session down in sixth, but was the fastest of those running the Mercedes power unit, with Russell and Antonelli again directly behind him in the standings.

Reflecting on the first day of track action, the 24-year-old said: "FP2, certainly on my side, went a lot smoother than FP1. There are just so many things to get to grips with; it's very different to what we had last year.

"But no, I think FP2 as a session was pretty smooth. Was able to build some consistency and start learning properly, which was good.

"Yeah, try to see what we've learned today, because I think everyone's going to find a big step overnight. So, I think we need to try and do the same."

Race pace concerns

However, the McLaren driver is not convinced, at this stage, that his pace will translate to a front-row result in qualifying — or strong form in race trim.

Assessing his chances for the rest of the opening round of the campaign, he added: "The front few rows, hopefully. Whether it's pole or not, I don't know.

"I've not seen what our race pace or our long run pace looked like. I'm not sure it was as good as some others around us, but I think we looked okay.

"I think the biggest thing at the moment is just trying to build consistency, make things operate the way they should — and in FP2 it looked like we were able to get closer to doing that."