Oscar Piastri attributed his noticeable lag behind Lando Norris in the sprint qualifying for the United States Grand Prix to ‘a sloppy lap.’ The Australian fell short by three-tenths in Austin against his McLaren teammate, who was narrowly defeated by Max Verstappen for pole position. Piastri is now focusing on a strong race start at the Circuit of the Americas.
Throughout the free practice and all stages of the sprint qualifying, Piastri consistently found himself behind Norris. In the decisive SQ3, he ultimately had to concede four-tenths to Verstappen and three to his teammate – a larger gap than expected between the two McLaren drivers, who are both competing for the world championship this season.
‘We’ll see what happens’
“Yes, I know where I lost time,” Piastri sighed afterwards. “To be honest, it was just a pretty sloppy lap. I didn’t really get it together. In a way, I feel a bit privileged with third place, because the speed in the car is good and there’s nothing seriously wrong.” The Australian emphasized that he is not worried about his pace towards the sprint race and the qualifying for the main race. “It wasn’t a disastrous day, just a messy lap. Hopefully, I can correct that in the regular qualifying.”
With Verstappen and Norris on the first starting row, and Piastri just behind, all three title candidates start at the front in the sprint race. The first corner in Austin is known as one of the most treacherous on the calendar – a steep climb to the left, where contact is more the rule than the exception. “We’ll see what happens at the start,” said Piastri. “If I get off well, I’ll try to position myself in the right place. It’s often difficult to determine what the ideal line is in turn one, so we’ll see what happens.”
