Oscar Piastri will start from the third row of the grid in a disappointing qualifying effort as title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris grabbed the front row places at the United States of America Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Piastri was sixth fastest and now an intriguing race awaits as the likes of Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will not be easy to get past at the Circuit of the Americas..
The positioning of the McLarens also will surely test the infamous ‘papaya rules’ as intrigue surrounds Norris’ punishment for crashing into Piastri in Singapore, which the team has kept private.
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“Not really any mistakes, I just didn’t really feel like I got into a rhythm for the whole session. Just struggled,” Piastri said.
“So, yeah go and have a look at why obviously. But it was mostly a battle.”
Verstappen was fastest in all three qualifying sessions and took pole position with a lap time of 1:32.510 after earlier in the day winning the sprint race, which the two McLarens crashed out of in the opening lap.
The Dutchman reduced Piastri’s lead over him in the title race to 55 points with his sprint race victory, and now he is poised to make up more ground in the main race when that begins at 6am AEDT on Monday morning.
Verstappen has been in blistering form with two wins and two second-place finishes in the last four races, and despite not getting his timings right to get another shot at setting a fast time at the end of Q3, it did not matter.
“It was good. I think every segment, the car was very strong. It is very hot, very strong winds as well. We couldn’t do our last run, a very messy out-lap but luckily we didn’t need it,” Verstappen said.
Piastri was asked whether he was confident that the McLarens had Verstappen’s Red Bull covered for race pace in the Texan heat, but the Australian was coy with his response.
“Difficult to say, Max has looked quick all weekend,” he said.
“So, we’ll have to wait and see if that translate into tomorrow as well. But yeah obviously we have no idea.”
Piastri also opened up on the Turn One crash in the sprint racing, saying he does not think there was anything untoward that happened.
“I think it is just a racing incident. Lando and I were a long way from the apex, and it’s impossible to see everything at that point,” he said.
“If I had have known there was three wide behind me, maybe I could have done something a little different.
“But you have to trust your gut, and your instinct, and that’s what I did.”
The Australian clearly seemed more downcast the normal after a disappointing day, but made it clear he can fight back on race day.
“When you don’t have the pace you want, it’s never the nicest feeling,” he said.
“But there’s a lot of opportunities tomorrow.
“Strategy, things, hopefully our race pace will be good.
“It’s a track you can overtake on, so we’ll see what we can do, but the weekend is far from over.”
GRID
1 Verstappen
2 Norris
3 Leclerc
4 Russell
5 Hamilton
6 Piastri
7 Antonelli
8 Bearman
9 Sainz
10 Alonso
11 Hulkenberg
12 Lawson
13 Tsunoda
14 Gasly
15 Colapinto
16 Bortoleto
17 Ocon
18 Stroll
19 Albon
20 Hadjar
Recap all the action from qualifying in our live blog below. Can’t see it? Click here
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