Oscar Piastri reacts to a disappointing F1 US GP qualifying

McLaren star Oscar Piastri came into the US GP as the championship leader, with Max Verstappen joining the title challenge in light of his recent form. The Australian driver only managed to qualify P6 for the main race at the Circuit of the Americas in reacted to the subpar session.

Oscar Piastri qualified P3 during the Sprint qualifying session yesterday, and wasn't far away from Lando Norris and Max Verstappen's pace. However, during the sprint race earlier today, the Australian was involved in a four-car Lap 1 crash, which included his teammate, and the car had to be rebuilt for the qualifying.

Both the McLaren drivers had a horrid Q1 session and were barely able to make it the Q2. However, going into Q3, the Australian driver ran his first lap on the scrubbed set of tires from Q2 and was nearly a second slower than Max Verstappen's provisional pole position lap time.

Although Oscar Piastri improved in the final Q3 run, he could only manage a lap time good enough for P6 as the McLaren driver wasn't one with the MCL39. Detailing the factors which led to a disappointing qualifying session at the US GP, Piastri said, (via Sky Sports F1)

“I didn't really make any mistakes, just didn’t feel like I really got into a rhythm for the whole session, just struggled. We’ll go and have a look at why, obviously. But, yeah, that was obviously a battle.”

Speaking with other media publications, Piastri detailed how a lack of confidence led to him bleeding lap time in multiple turns.

“There's a lot of corners here where if you're not feeling perfectly at one with the car you lose time. Not that surprised [about finishing 6th] when you have that feeling,” said Piastri

---

Oscar Piastri is optimistic about moving forward at the US GP

Piastri crashed on Lap 1 of the sprint race, and McLaren wasn't able to get any real data about a high-fuel run, whereas their competitors, including Max Verstappen, were able to run for the entirety of the sprint and make those changes.

The main race at COTA will be a big unknown for McLaren, yet Oscar Piastri had an optimistic look for the race on Sunday, as he said,

“When you don’t have the pace you want, it’s never the nicest feeling. But there’s a lot of opportunities tomorrow. Hopefully our race pace will be good. It’s a track you can overtake on, so we’ll see what we can do. The weekend is far from over.”

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella also came out after the qualifying session and detailed how a lack of confidence, along with the gusty conditions, led to Piastri's subpar performance.

Edited by Pranay Bhagi