Piastri Backs McLaren's Mexico City Pace After Messy Friday

Oscar Piastri believes McLaren's underlying pace in Mexico City is stronger than his FP2 result suggested, after a "messy" soft-tyre lap left him 10th and 0.539s off teammate Lando Norris.

Why it matters:

Saturday's qualifying at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez looks set to be a Ferrari-versus-McLaren fight, and Piastri can ill afford to leave lap time on the table while Charles Leclerc sweeps both Friday sessions.

The details:

• Piastri was eighth in FP1, when Norris sat out to let Leonardo Fornaroli run his car. Reunited in FP2, Norris took second, just 0.103s behind Leclerc.
• The Australian blamed "a couple of very big mistakes" on his quick lap rather than a lack of speed, calling that a "nice feeling" heading into qualifying.
• He expects beating Ferrari to be "very tough," describing the field as "very tight" from top to bottom.
• Two other themes stood out: minimal grip on the resurfaced circuit — a familiar challenge under the 2026 regulations — and engine cooling at altitude.
• Piastri pushed back on George Russell's theory that Ferrari's smaller turbocharger, more relevant now the MGU-H is gone, is decisive here, noting the Ferrari looked "a bit slow on the straights."

What's next:

FP3 runs at 4:30am AEDT Sunday, the last chance to dial in the soft tyre before qualifying. If Piastri tidies up his errors, he should be considerably further up the order.