Oscar Piastri after qualifying P6 at the United States GP - Photo: RacePictures

Piastri ‘uncomfortable’ with McLaren car after disappointing qualifying

10:32, 19 Oct

byBen Winship

Oscar Piastri has expressed a lack of confidence in his McLaren around the Circuit of the Americas following a disappointing P6 qualifying ahead of the United States GP.

“I don't feel like I've made any major mistakes from a driving side of things. It's just not clicked.”

- Oscar Piastri speaking after qualifying at the United States GP

The Australian has been slower than teammate Lando Norris throughout the weekend, qualifying 0.283 seconds behind Norris and 0.574 seconds slower than polesitter Max Verstappen.

Concerns about his car during qualifying

After dramatically crashing out of the Saturday’s sprint race on the first lap following contact with Norris and Nico Hulkenberg, Piastri starts Sunday’s race feeling in the unknown with his McLaren MCL39.

Race-ending contact between the McLaren cars on lap 1 of Saturday's sprint race - Photo: RacePictures

Speaking after qualifying Piastri said: “I think here it's been a struggle for me.

“I don't feel like I've made any major mistakes from a driving side of things. It's just not clicked.

“It's not been so much over-driving, it's just I haven't felt comfortable with the car really. I think that's been the story of this weekend but I don't think it's been the story of the last few.

Struggling in ‘a lot of places’

Piastri outlined he has been struggling in general around COTA and that his lack of confidence is not confined to a specific characteristic of the car’s behaviour.

He said: “I'm not sure, I haven't seen it yet but I think it's just a little bit in a lot of places really.

“When you don't have the confidence in the car around a place like this with so many corners, you can lose a lot of time in or a little bit of time in a lot of corners and that's what it felt like.”

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Piastri leads Norris by 22 points going into Sunday's race but has work to do to stop his rivals closing the deficit further.

Verstappen has already gained eight points on Piastri after his sprint race victory on Saturday, closing his gap to the championship leader down to 55 points.

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