Piastri disagrees with Verstappen: 'This weekend slightly in Red Bull's favour'

Verstappen hinted after his pole position in conversation with GPblog and others that he does not expect a win. McLaren is still too fast in the reigning world champion's opinion. In doing so, Verstappen relies on last Friday's longruns, in which Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri impressed more than the second RB20s.

Small differences

After qualifying at Spa, Oscar Piastri did not entirely agree with the World Championship leader's observation that the MCL38 now has the best package on all types of circuits. "I think we definitely do still have some different characteristics. In my opinion, Budapest is really the only weekend for us where you can clearly say we're the quickest. And even in saying that, I think had Max got through the traffic a bit quicker in the race, he would have posed a serious threat at the end."

"I think they [Red Bull] were still very competitive and qualifying was very close. I think the other races, I think Mercedes looked very strong in a couple of them. Canada, Silverstone looked very strong. Ferrari have been quick at certain races as well a little bit earlier in the season. I think it's been incredibly tight the whole way through. Just some days we've made mistakes, some days Red Bull have made mistakes."

Piastri holds different reading to Verstappen

Piastri thinks Red Bull - despite his race simulation being faster than Verstappen's two days ago - has the fastest car at Spa. "Last weekend our car probably favoured that track a little bit more. This weekend, it probably favoured Red Bull a little bit more. So all these little things put together are what makes the difference at the moment. I think we just need to try and make sure we maximise the ones that are in our control. But I don't think we've necessarily had the edge over them for the last five or six races," concluded the Australian.

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy