Oscar Piastri said he lacked comfort and confidence in his McLaren at the American Grand Prix after qualifying sixth and watching Max Verstappen take further points from the championship lead.
Verstappen won the sprint race from pole position after both McLarens were involved in a first-corner incident and retired, reducing Piastri’s advantage over the Dutchman to 55 points. Verstappen then took pole position for the Grand Prix by more than a quarter of a second from Lando Norris, but Piastri remained in sixth place, risking a huge swing in the points on Sunday.
“It was a tricky session,” Piastri said. “I didn’t feel very comfortable, but I think the lap times show that… It’s still a long race tomorrow and a lot can happen, so I’ll try to recover as much as possible.”
“(The car) is a little bit unpredictable. I think it was very tight for the previous position. Compared to yesterday, it didn’t feel as comfortable or as fast, but yes, there are some things we need to try and see and see why it happened.”
“A lot of corners… if you don’t have that feeling, you have to pay for it. Yesterday I had some chances where I could have found some relatively clear chances, but I felt like my lap today was probably not the best lap of my life, but it was comparable to the laps I’ve done so far. Unfortunately, the lap times didn’t come.”
McLaren had to repair both cars ahead of qualifying, but Piastri said there was no concern the sprint incident would hinder anything on the garage’s side.
“It’s completely back to normal. As far as I know, it’s set up the way it was intended,” he said. “Everything felt normal. It was the kind of behavior we’ve had a few times throughout the season…and then it was playing again.”
Piastri also had time to reflect on his collision with Nico Hulkenberg in the sprint and with Norris at Turn 1, but felt he had the right to turn inside at the first corner.
“For me, I think this is something that happened during the race,” he explained. “I think I was quite far from the apex and the cars behind me were quite deep into the corner. Could I have done something a little bit differently? Maybe it was, but that difference could have caused me to miss a couple of cars.”
“You can’t just run around the outside of the track and everyone uses up all the space. I think you’re racing when you feel like you can’t be too aggressive.”