Oscar Piastri turns corner in fresh McLaren 'hope'

Oscar Piastri has highlighted that he is much more comfortable behind the wheel of his McLaren car at the Dutch Grand Prix compared to weekends of the past.

The Australian ended Saturday's qualifying session in fourth and was once again outpaced by his team-mate Lando Norris, who secured pole position.

Piastri has largely been unable to match the pace of Norris throughout the first half of the campaign and has faced issues extracting performance from the car.

Despite being slower once again during qualifying at Zandvoort, Piastri was content with how much more comfortable he felt behind the wheel.

“We weren't that strong at the end of the sprint race, so we wanted to improve a bit, and hopefully we've done that,” he said. “We'll have to wait and see tomorrow. 

“But in general, I've been much happier with the car this weekend, which has been good. 

“I feel like it's been back into the normal kind of rhythm of having strengths in some corners, weaknesses in others, rather than just trying to find time everywhere, which has been nice.”

During the sprint race on Saturday, Norris was forced to drive defensively throughout, slipping from second to third.

When asked if he has an explanation as to why McLaren seem to lack pace in race trim compared to qualifying, Piastri replied: “Not scientifically, no. 

“But I think in general, we still probably lack a little bit of downforce compared to some of the others, or at least some balance characteristics. 

“We rely a lot on the grip from the new tyres to help our balance, and maybe we pay the price a bit more when the tyres get worse. 

“Hopefully tomorrow, we've improved because if we have the same pace as we had in the sprint, then it's going to be a difficult race.”