Oscar Piastri says the Australian Grand Prix was a positive day out despite finishing just shy of the podium at his home race.
The McLaren driver finished fourth behind Lando Norris, his best career result so far at Albert Park, after being instructed to swap places with his teammate on lap 29.
From his viewpoint, the Aussie said while not ideal, conceding the place to Norris was completely warranted.
“It was fine – Lando qualified in front and tried something a bit at the first stop,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1.
“He was quicker than me in the middle of that stint, so at that point it looked like he could maybe get in front of the Ferraris.
“I was holding pace with them but Lando was a bit quicker, so for me that was completely fair.
“For me of course, I would like to have stayed in third but as a team, I think we made the right call.”
When asked if he could have extracted anything more from his McLaren or done anything differently to finish further ahead, Piastri indicated the team was surprised by its progress at Albert Park, but fourth was the best he could have hoped for.
“Not massively no, just didn’t quite have enough to get the Ferraris I think,” said the Aussie.
“Leclerc ran out of tyres on the second stint there, but seemed to manage it a bit better in the first stint.
“I don’t think there’s too much more we could have done on my side, just missed a little bit today but all in all, not a bad day.
“I would like to think we’ve closed it (the gap to Ferrari, we’ll see. I think we were a bit surprised we could stay so close to Ferrari today…also surprised Red Bull weren’t quicker.
“Obviously Max went out early but that was a positive surprise and a good step forward, so we’ll so if we can keep that going...but optimistic I think.”