Oscar Piastri was left to reflect on a “frustrating” Qualifying at the Mexico City Grand Prix after ending the session in P8, with the Australian admitting that it was “not the lap time that I’m expecting”.
Having been unable to match the pace of McLaren team mate Lando Norris in the second and third practice sessions – with Norris sitting out FP1 while rookie Pato O’Ward took the wheel – Piastri again seemed some distance away during Qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Norris ultimately sealed pole position in Q3, but Piastri was nearly eight-tenths adrift of the Briton back in P8, though he will be promoted to P7 on the grid for Sunday’s race due to the Williams of Carlos Sainz ahead of him taking a five-place penalty.
Looking back on how the session unfolded, Piastri explained: “It was tough. It felt like some of my laps when it counted were not bad, but just not the lap time that I’m expecting obviously. There’s some things we need to try to understand, but obviously a frustrating session.”
There appeared to be a potential concern over the power unit in Piastri’s MCL39 during Q2 when the championship leader radioed in that “something weird happened” in Turn 5.
When asked about this afterwards – as well as being quizzed on what specifically he is missing at the moment given his tricky weekend so far – the 24-year-old responded: “The PU was fine, I think – just a small under-delivery in one of the corners on the lap, but nothing major that continued.
“The thing that’s been missing is the lap time. Everything’s felt normal. The car’s never going to feel amazing around here with the high altitude, but everything’s felt pretty normal – just the lap time’s not been there.”
With the focus now switching to Sunday’s race, Piastri outlined how he intends to approach the launch when the 71-lap Grand Prix gets underway.
“Try and have a good start, and then see what I can do,” the McLaren driver – whose championship lead over Norris stands at just 14 points – stated. “It’s a long run to Turn 1, so there’s opportunities there and I’ll try and take them.”
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