Oscar Piastri has qualified fourth for Monday morning’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The Australian was typically stoic as he assessed his day where he finished behind teammate Lando Norris in qualifying and during the earlier sprint race.
Piastri finished fourth in the 23 lap shoot out after pulling off a brazen move on F1 icon Lewis Hamilton on the final lap.
The bigger picture was George Russell winning the sprint race and securing pole position on another day of dominance for the Silver Arrows.
The team locked out the front row for Monday’s race with Antonelli qualifying second.
But there were enough signs on Sunday morning to suggest Mercedes will be looking over their shoulder at the McLaren garage.
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His move to muscle past Hamilton on the outside of a chicane had many F1 pundits applauding, but the Melburnian seemed far from pleased by the end of the day.
Piastri was able to get his McLaren up alongside the Ferrari on the final lap and then shut the door on the seven time world champ.
Reigning champ Norris also seemed far from pleased at the end of the day, despite finishing second in the sprint race and qualifying third.
Piastri was just 0.2 seconds away from pole and was 0.05 seconds behind his teammate.
Mercedes has also introduced its first major upgrade of the year — and the gap between Mercedes and their power unit customer appears to be shrinking.
While many pundits were impressed with the steps taken by McLaren after introducing back-to-back upgrade packages, the sombre mood of Piastri and Norris was called out by Sky Sports analyst Jamie Chadwick.
Downplaying a sudden boost of pace is the oldest trick in the book.
“This already reminds me of last year,” she said.
“McLaren were out in front and playing down their opportunities and everyone behind them felt like they were off in the distance.
“More often than not they were. I’m surprised that Lando and Oscar are downplaying the chance to take anything to the Mercedes, especially after the sprint race.
“The thing that is tricky is, I do think Mercedes have it in their control. The opportunities for McLaren come if those two (Antonelli and Russell) trip over each other again and there’s a very good chance if it’s dry tomorrow that they will because Kimi is not going to want to stay behind George.”
Sky Sports analyst David Croft was also optimistic about McLaren’s new package.
“It’s not over because even with the Mercedes upgrades they (McLaren) are still in touching distance,” he said.
“In fact the gap was smaller, which is the interesting thing. The gap was three tenths in qualifying yesterday and it was just a tenth and a half today. So better than yesterday. It’s a step forwards.”
Piastri was not as optimistic.
“I think we are a bit closer to Mercedes, yes, but I still don’t think we have their ultimate pace,” he said.
“Their pace in the Sprint, before they started battling, was impressive.
“We will wait and see with the weather in the race [and if it rains]. I think that is going to be the biggest opportunity.
“Our starts have been okay but the run is very short to Turn One so there is not the same ability to make progress.”
He said his move on Hamilton was not as easy as it looked, suggesting the Papaya team are not that far in front of Ferrari.
“It was a bit tricky. Even when I got past it was not easy,” he said.
“I think as the race went on I was getting quicker and quicker to Lewis, but there was not an easy way past.”
The day still belonged to Mercedes.
Russell and Antonelli clashed for the first time this season during the sprint race.
Antonelli was furious after he was squeezed off the track as they went wheel to wheel.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff dived in on team radio to tell Antonelli to stop complaining on the team radio.
“That was very naughty,” said Antonelli, who accused Russell of pushing him off.
“That should be a penalty. I was alongside the mirror.”
His experienced race engineer Peter Bonnington told him to calm down and concentrate, but Antonelli was still fuming after the race.
“If we race like that, it is good to know,” said the teenager before Wolff told him: “Kimi, we don’t talk about this on the radio — we do it internally.
“Kimi, concentrate on the driving, please, not on the radio moaning.”
“l need to review on that because I was quite well alongside him at turn one,” said Antonelli. “But it was a good battle.”
Canadian GP Sprint Result Top 8
1) George Russell, Mercedes
2) Lando Norris, McLaren
3) Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
4) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
5) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
6) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
7) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
8) Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
Canadian GP Qualifying Top 10
1) George Russell, Mercedes
2) Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
3) Lando Norris, McLaren
4) Oscar Piastri, McLaren
5) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
6) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
7) Isack Hadjar, Red Bull
8) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
9) Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
10) Franco Colapinto, Alpine
