It will be a difficult fight, but we'll be giving it everything to put on a good show for the home crowd."
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Piastri qualified just 0.032 seconds behind his teammate with a time of 1m28.772s, placing him on the fourth row.
"P7 is more or less what we expected.
We knew we probably weren't in the fight for the very front, and while we made some small improvements, it just wasn't enough to close the gap to the leaders," Piastri said.
"It's a shame because I felt like we got everything we could out of the car, but we've just not had the fundamental pace."
The Australian noted the close gaps to the front runners provide opportunities to optimize setup ahead of main Grand Prix Qualifying.
"We ended up close to that next group of cars, which gives us something to work with.
We'll analyse everything overnight and be ready to push hard for a better result in Qualifying tomorrow."
The session's tight margins across the entire grid were highlighted as a defining factor of the current competitive landscape.
"It was another incredibly tight session today," said Randy Singh, Senior Director, Racing.
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McLaren also highlighted achievements in its driver development program, with Matteo De Palo securing fifth in FIA Formula 3 Qualifying, while Ella Lloyd and Ella Stevens qualified sixth and eleventh respectively for their upcoming races.
