![\"Piastri](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/XPB_1410607_HiRes.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOscar Piastri is remaining realistic of McLaren’s pace ahead of the Canadian sprint. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOscar Piastri is remaining realistic of McLaren’s pace ahead of the Canadian sprint. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
Piastri finished fourth in Montreal, two hundredths behind teammate Lando Norris, as George Russell led a Mercedes front-row lockout ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n
While McLaren had reduced the gap to the Brackley squad with upgrades introduced in Miami last round, Piastri said Mercedes remained the team to beat after another commanding display in Canada, where the championship leaders also brought their own updates to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean it was feeling pretty good,\u201d Piastri told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bit of a messy day for everybody I think. But the Mercedes still looks very strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think that\u2019s probably the biggest takeaway from today unfortunately. But we\u2019ll see what we can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee how we can optimise things a bit better and try our best again tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell secured sprint pole with a 1m12.965s, finishing 0.068s clear of Antonelli, while Norris and Piastri completed the top four ahead of the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n
Despite McLaren again falling short of Mercedes over one lap, Piastri believed the team could still capitalise on its strong starts in Saturday\u2019s sprint, particularly in fending off the Ferraris behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean our starts have been better than the Ferrari\u2019s all year, so we\u2019re confident in ours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s only a matter of time before Mercedes get theirs competitive as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut until that time comes, we\u2019ll try our best to take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained the squad had opted against running a revised front wing package during sprint qualifying as it continued evaluating the update.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a fair margin considering that they had important upgrades here,\u201d Stella said. \u201cWe also had some upgrades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually wanted to take a bit more time to see the behaviour of the front wings, so we race with the previous front wings.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo looking at the fact that the car is pretty much the Miami car, it\u2019s a gap that remains encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stella said the sprint format influenced McLaren\u2019s decision to stick with a more familiar setup package.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it\u2019s a sprint event, you know that you only have one [practice] session,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to race a car that we know. We want to race a car that is predictable.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for the moment we are going for the Miami front wing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canadian sprint take place at 2am AEST Sunday (12pm local time Saturday).<\/p>\n
Russell leads Mercedes 1-2 in Canada sprint qualifying<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n