Piastri admits second-placed finish in Japan 'as good as a win' for McLaren

[p]In what was his first grand prix of the season, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/piastri-oscar/MqKAIeUf/"]Piastri[/a] lost out to Mercedes' [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/antonelli-andrea-kimi/ptGu0mT1/"]Kimi Antonelli[/a] at Suzuka, with [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/norris-lando/WSVABbVF/"]Norris[/a] finishing fifth.[/p][p]Piastri crashed on the way to the grid at the season opener in Melbourne and missed the race in China due to a technical problem.[/p][p]Norris also did not start in China because of a separate issue.[/p][p]Piastri said it had been a "really encouraging" race in Japan after McLaren's early-season woes.[/p][p][b]"I think the strategy was good, so I think we just nailed everything," [/b]he said.[/p][p][b]"Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough for the win, but I think at the moment a result like today is as good as a win for us."[/b][/p][embed guid="9362f55f-ffe5-4166-8f74-a04e793983e7" url="https://x.com/McLarenF1/status/2038175484131881163?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Piastri led from Mercedes' [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/russell-george/xxF56RaN/"]George Russell[/a] for the first half of the race, but Antonelli took advantage of a safety car to jump into the lead.[/p][p]Piastri had already pitted by the time the safety car came out midway through the race.[/p][p]The Australian said he "would have loved to have seen how it would have panned out" if he had been able to continue his battle with the Mercedes from a leading position.[/p][p]But he said overall the Japanese Grand Prix had been "probably one of my best weekends in F1".[/p][p][b]"As race weekends go, we couldn't have done any better than that,"[/b] he said.[/p][p][b]"I'm very happy with the performance that I put in, very happy with the performance from the whole team."[/b][/p][embed guid="174e0068-be87-4072-b515-027a04af7c15" url="https://x.com/McLarenF1/status/2038145761834139824?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Norris went into the race with little driving time under his belt, having been unable to take part in the first half of all three practice sessions.[/p][p]He managed to pick off Ferrari's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hamilton-lewis/tI5Vpe1h/"]Lewis Hamilton[/a] for fifth place late in the race and he said it had been "a strong day for the team".[/p][p][b]"Second and fifth is a good result and a sign of the hard work the team is putting in, so thanks to them," [/b]said Norris.[/p][p][b]"It's a sign we're heading in the right direction."[/b][/p]