Piastri hopeful McLaren can build on Sepang recovery after admitting a 'tiny step behind'

McLaren recovers from difficult opening hour

Oscar Piastri endured a difficult opening session at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, finishing 11th with team-mate Lando Norris 12th, both drivers more than 1.7 seconds adrift of Max Verstappen's FP1 benchmark as McLaren used the hour to compare different rear-wing configurations. As Speedcafe reported, the picture improved considerably in second practice, with Norris climbing to third and Piastri to sixth, just 0.371s behind session-topping Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. ¹

Piastri framed the day as progress but not parity with the front. 'I think it looks pretty close amongst the top four teams. I think Red Bull have looked very strong through the day, Mercedes as well looked strong at points, and obviously Ferrari were pretty good. So everyone's kind of had their turn being reasonably competitive. I think we're maybe a tiny step behind. But we made a lot of progress from FP1. So hopefully we can keep that trend going,' he told Sky Sports F1, as quoted by Speedcafe, with the same remarks also carried by RacingNews365, Formula1.com and AAP. ¹²⁴⁵

On the day's unusual rhythm, Piastri explained that the expectation of rain reshaped tyre choices: 'Everyone was expecting rain, and then we didn't get it. So I think the tyre choices and things like that were a little bit different to normal. But we seemed reasonable. I don't know what the long run pace was like really, but interesting first day,' he told Sky Sports F1, according to Speedcafe. ¹

Track conditions caught McLaren by surprise

McLaren's senior racing director Randy Singh explained the slow start in a Formula1.com interview. 'The track's a lot lower grip than we expected coming here, a lot rougher as well, so that caught us a little bit by surprise,' he said. 'I think we struggled getting the car in a good window in FP1, but a lot of good work at the track, and at the factory, in FP2. I think the car is in a much better place.' Asked about a possible pole fight, Singh said the team was focused on 'doing the best we can with the package that we have', adding there was still a lot of potential to exploit and it was 'very hard to say at this stage'. ⁴

Piastri also downplayed the rear-wing comparison running, telling Sky Sports F1 via Speedcafe: 'It wasn't a concern. It's more that after Baku where we don't have very many of them. So it was all fine.' McLaren will have one final practice session on Saturday before qualifying at Sepang. ¹

A jumbled, tightly packed pecking order

The day produced a remarkably tight picture at the front. Leclerc topped FP2 on 1:37.528, leading Red Bull's Isack Hadjar by 0.099s, with Norris a further 0.038s back in third — three constructors covered by 0.137s, as Fox Sports noted. Verstappen, fastest in FP1 with a 1:37.520, was fourth in FP2 despite running a qualifying simulation on medium rather than soft tyres, with Lewis Hamilton fifth. AAP reported Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were seventh and eighth after mistakes on their soft-tyre runs. ¹³⁵

Leclerc refused to read much into Ferrari's position, telling Fox Sports: 'Everybody is very close. It's been a very, very difficult day overall.' He pointed to tyre degradation as the weekend's main talking point, saying things would change and evolve from Friday to Saturday. Pirelli estimated degradation at between 0.2s and 0.3s per lap — potentially forcing as many as three stops per driver — according to Fox Sports. ³

Leclerc also offered a caveat to the picture of Ferrari on top, telling Fox Sports he still felt Red Bull was standing out this weekend and that he did not think Ferrari were the most competitive. Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché told Fox Sports the team had been 'surprisingly happy' after starting the weekend without optimism, crediting the upgrade package brought to Baku. ³

Mercedes arrived with an air of confidence, Fox Sports reported, bringing its long-awaited second major upgrade of the season — the first since Canada in May — which some suggested could be worth 0.3s. Yet neither Andrea Kimi Antonelli nor George Russell completed a representative FP2 time. Russell said the cars were operating in a very different window and the team had not got the car where it needed to be, with tyre overheating trumping everything and set-up adjustments needed overnight. ³

Stewards were also busy: AAP reported Hamilton, fifth fastest in FP2, received a warning for impeding Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto, with Ferrari fined 10,000 euros after stewards took into account Hamilton's revelation that his right-hand mirror had been damaged and the team had not given him a radio warning. ⁵

Long-run data points to a close race

Telemetry analysis by PlanetF1 suggested race pace will matter more than qualifying this weekend, with teams scrambling to complete long-run simulations before the forecast rain that never arrived. Verstappen showed very strong pace on an ultra-long medium-tyre run, while Russell's long soft-tyre stint averaged exactly four tenths slower. On comparable soft-tyre runs, Leclerc's average was a full four tenths better than the next quickest, Norris, with both Hamilton and Piastri noticeably slower. ⁷

PlanetF1's analysis also highlighted structural strengths: McLaren was faster down all the straights, whereas the Ferrari was quicker through the high-speed corners, and Red Bull made its difference in the second sector through lower energy harvesting. With the grid so evenly matched after FP2, PlanetF1 concluded it was very hard to pick a favourite for qualifying or the race, with weather the biggest wildcard. ⁷

A factor behind the evenly matched picture, PlanetF1 noted, is experience: only 10 of the 22 drivers have raced at Sepang in Formula 1, with Hamilton and Verstappen the only current top-team drivers to have done so, and Verstappen the winner of the last Malaysian Grand Prix there in 2017. ⁵⁷

On race pace, Fox Sports quoted Piastri as saying the true long-run performance across the grid, including for McLaren, remained 'a bit of an unknown for everyone', but that it felt like the team 'could be in the mix'. ³

Context: an unusual, hard-fought return to Sepang

The 2026 campaign opened at Albert Park in March, where McLaren's Friday followed a similar pattern of an untidy first session before recovery: Formula1.com's team-by-team report recorded Piastri topping second practice in Melbourne on 1:19.729 after FP1 power unit calibration issues, while Norris managed only seven first-session laps because of a precautionary gearbox change. ⁶

AAP noted the Sepang round is hosting the race due to the Middle East conflict, with the track last on the calendar in 2017, when Verstappen won before Malaysia dropped off because the government felt it could not justify the costs. Verstappen was quoted by AAP as saying his pace dropped off in the second session due to very high tyre degradation, with 'a lot of things to look at with the tyres'. ⁵