Oscar Piastri expecting “evenly matched” F1 fight in British GP

Oscar Piastri is predicting an “evenly matched” battle at the front in Sunday’s British Grand Prix after narrowly missing out on pole position to Red Bull rival Max Verstappen.

McLaren looked like the team to beat after topping Friday practice, with Ferrari appearing its closest challenger heading into qualifying at Silverstone.

However, an overnight set-up change in favour of straightline speed brought Verstappen firmly into contention, and the four-time world champion edged Piastri by just a tenth of a second with his final Q3 lap.

Mercedes driver George Russell ended up another three hundredths adrift in fourth place, with the top six separated by only 0.229s in an ultra-close session.

Championship leader Piastri expects similarly fine margins to decide Sunday’s race, with no single car clearly ahead across all areas.

“It’s going to be a fun race,” he said. “It has been very evenly matched between us, Max, the Ferraris — I saw even George get up there at the end.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty evenly paced race tomorrow. All of us have got slightly different strengths. The Red Bull is very quick in a straightline. We’ve been just a bit quicker in the high speed. So it’s going to be a fun one.”

Piastri had held provisional pole after the first Q3 runs, becoming the first driver of the weekend to dip below the 1m25s barrier with a time of 1m24.995.

But he couldn’t improve on his final run after a scrappy end to the lap, allowing Verstappen to clinch his fourth pole of the season.

The Australian admitted he left time on the table by being too cautious.

“I was happy with the first lap,” he said. “The first lap was mega, to be honest. I was trying to think how I was going to go faster and I didn’t.

“The last lap was a little bit messy, but it’s been tight all weekend. I think the first lap was very good. I don’t know how much the track would have improved. A little bit on the table — we’ll never know if it was enough.

“The team has done a great job of trying a lot of things this weekend, trying to get a bit more pace. The car has felt mega all weekend, but there have been a few points where we’re scratching our heads about why we’re not quicker.”

He added: “It’s tough [to improve on the second run], especially when you think it’s a good lap. You don’t want to overdo it and go over the limit.

“I think there were a couple of corners where maybe I was a bit safe on the way in and tried to make up for it on the way out, and it didn’t quite work. So yeah, there’s always little fine margins as we know — but ultimately, I’m pretty happy with second on the grid.”