‘The lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery’ – Piastri

Oscar Piastri admits he’s at a loss to explain the gap to teammate Lando Norris in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Norris took pole position with a stunning final lap in Q3, beating the two Ferrari drivers who offered the closest threat in qualifying. Piastri was only eighth quickest in qualifying, and although he will be promoted to seventh by a grid penalty for Carlos Sainz, he says the 0.6s gap to Norris is confusing. 

“Everything feels normal, but the gap was big in that session,” Piastri said. “It’s been big all weekend. There’s been some things where I feel like I can tidy it up and make some easy progress but not all of it, and I think in qualifying I did a reasonable job and the car felt reasonable as well. The lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery.

“Ultimately I’m just a bit frustrated with how the session’s gone. There’s a lot of things I could worry about but ultimately being that far off when you feel like you’ve done a reasonable job is a difficult place to be, so that’s my biggest concern at the moment.”

Piastri also struggled to match Norris in Austin last weekend – although not to the same extent – and he does see some similarities between the two races.

“In some ways not too dissimilar, but what’s been a bit surprising here is the gap’s been the same pretty much every session," he said. "I feel like I’ve done some decent laps through the weekend but everything seems to be about four-to-five tenths off, so that’s obviously not a great sign. But some of the things that were difficult in Austin are also proving difficult here.

“From Austin, there were some things that were clear, but even those things that were clear were a bit unusual, some of the differences, and again this weekend it’s been a bit different. I’ve not changed really how I’m driving since the start of the season, even a few races ago when things were going really well, so it’s difficult to pinpoint where the lap time has been lacking this weekend but I’m sure we’ll find it.”

Starting seventh – two spots behind Max Verstappen – Piastri says he will look to be aggressive at the start to try and limit the damage in the championship fight.

“I’ll try my best," he said. "It’s the longest run of the year, so I’ll try and make up some spots there. If I can unlock the pace in the car then we can have some fun – just have to try and unlock it.”