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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has admitted that Ferrari’s strong showing in Las Vegas wasn’t what the team were hoping for in the tense fight for the constructors’ title, but believes that “it could have been worse”.
Ferrari were arguably the favourites heading into the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and while they were unable to fully meet expectations to win the race, they still took a significant chunk out of McLaren’s lead in the constructors’ standings.
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Just 24 points now separates the two teams, meaning the battle will most likely go down to the final race in Abu Dhabi – Red Bull could still be in the mix too as they are a further 29 points behind the Italian team.
After topping every session, Mercedes were ultimately impossible to beat around the Nevada circuit, but Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc maximised what they could to cross the line in P3 and P4 respectively.
With the McLaren pair finishing behind in P6 and P7 – Lando Norris the lead driver – they will need to get the better of Ferrari in the last two races of what has been an incredibly competitive season.
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“We knew that this would probably be a trickier track for us and we expected Ferrari to be strong,” Piastri explained after the race. “It’s of course not ideal that they’ve gained some points on us but I think we expected it could have been worse.
“Let’s see – it’s obviously going to be tight to the rest of the year but hopefully Qatar’s a good weekend for us.”
The teams will now prepare to head to Qatar for the final Sprint weekend of the season – the track’s high-speed corners and flowing nature suit McLaren’s car on paper, with Sainz revealing that he is not expecting to finish higher than P5 with Ferrari.
But with such small margins between the frontrunners, the Australian will be hoping to avoid further incidents like his unfortunate time penalty for a false start from eighth position on the grid in Las Vegas.
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Asked about how it impacted his race, Piastri said: “I didn’t think I was that far forward but clearly I must have been. I don’t think it changed much.
“Yes, it made the early part and the middle part of the race a bit more difficult, but I don’t think it affected the result. We just weren’t quick enough, so some things to look at for sure.”
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