Oscar Piastri anticipates a fierce defensive battle from Sergio Perez in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, as the Red Bull driver seeks to capitalize on his best qualifying performance since the Chinese Grand Prix.
With a front-row start courtesy of teammate Max Verstappen’s grid penalty, Perez is under immense pressure to deliver a strong result for his team, one that is likely to determine his immediate future with Red Bull.
Piastri, who will start fifth behind his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in fourth, acknowledged the challenges ahead.
“Obviously we're in a fight with Red Bull in the constructors', and Max is leading the world championship in the drivers' standings,” the Aussie explained, quoted by Speedcafe.
“So of course I expect Checo [Perez] to put up a fight, I think even for his own sake.
“It's not been the easiest run for him and I think of course, more than anyone, he probably wants a really good result for himself.
“So I think he'll fight hard for it, but I don't think any harder than he would if it was another situation.”
While Perez looks to salvage his season, McLaren is focused on maintaining its strong form. Norris and Piastri topped Friday’s second free practice, proving their MCL38’s strong pace in dry conditions, which are expected on Sunday.
But Piastri singled out tyre management as a crucial factor for race success.
“With the degradation this weekend, I think in practice, I pitted at one point in practice and I was three seconds a lap faster than the car ahead of me,” Piastri said.
“If you manage to defend a car behind that's three seconds quicker than you, then that's pretty impressive.
“I think it will work itself out naturally.”
Norris echoed Piastri’s sentiment, noting McLaren’s advantage over its direct rivals in the tyre management department, although he acknowledged the inherent pace of the Red Bull, making overtaking a challenging proposition.
“I wouldn't say Perez is any more of a threat from that side, but he's in the quickest car,” commented the Briton.
“So in terms of getting past that, making the tyres last better than him and that kind of thing is going to be harder than some of the others.
“But I think when we look back at the pace from Friday, it gives us a decent amount of confidence that, if we just keep our heads down and focus on ourselves, we can hopefully get through them at some point in the race.”
With both McLaren drivers confident in their car’s performance, the stage is set for an intense battle with Red Bull, with Perez eager to prove his worth and McLaren gunning for glory once again.
However, Norris remains wary of the looming threat posed by Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman will start 11th on the grid due to a grid penalty for taking a new internal combustion engine, but Norris is under no illusions about the challenge that lies ahead.
“Definitely a threat,” ensured the Miami Grand Prix winner. “I think [he's] clearly been quickest all weekend – even yesterday in FP2, they just didn't turn up the engine and we had.
“So considering we were only two-tenths ahead, had a lot more in their bag, basically.
“Even after a lot of great races in the past few weeks, Red Bull have always been there or thereabouts.
“People want to try and count them out at times, but Max was easily on par with us in quali last weekend, and still pretty much the same race pace, just made more mistakes.
“At the minute, they look very strong here, he had looked [strong] since the first lap in FP1,” Norris added.
“He was quite easily the strongest, so he's going to be a threat tomorrow. That's low fuel, and hopefully high fuel is a little bit more even.
“But 100 percent, he's going to be coming through quickly, and I'm sure he'll be a threat for us at some point.”
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