Oscar Piastri left mystified by a lack of pace from McLaren after F1 Mexican GP qualifying disaster

McLaren star Oscar Piastri qualified P8 at the 2025 Mexican GP after failing to improve on his deficit to teammate Lando Norris from the practice session. The Australian driver was left mystified by the lack of pace, as detailed by him in the post-qualifying interviews.

Oscar Piastri was out-qualified by Lando Norris at last weekend’s US GP, and the same story continued into this weekend's race in Mexico City. Although Norris sat out FP1 to give Pato O'Ward the seat for the rookie session, the Briton was able to take the pole position.

Norris was off Max Verstappen's pace in FP2, but was able to extract the pace from the MCL39 in FP3 as he topped the session. In the qualifying session, the Briton comfortably took the pole position with nearly a three-tenth margin over Charles Leclerc in P2.

F1 Grand Prix of Mexico - Qualifying - Source: Getty

Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, had a deficit of about half a second to Lando Norris in all the practice sessions, and the same was the case in the qualifying session. The Australian barely made it to Q3 by just seven hundredths of a second.

Piastri was one of the first drivers to complete his final run in Q3 and was then dropped by others, who improved on the final run, leading to a P8 qualifying position for the McLaren driver. Reflecting on the lack of pace throughout the whole weekend, the Australian was left mystified as he said,

“What’s been a bit surprising here has just been that the gap has been the same pretty much every session. I feel like I've done some decent laps through the weekend, but everything seems to be about four or five tenths off.”

“That's obviously not a great sign but some of the things that were difficult in Austin are also pretty difficult here. There's been some things where I feel like I can tidy it up and make some easy progress, but not all of it. In qualifying, I felt like I did a reasonable job and the car felt reasonable as well. The lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery,” added Oscar Piastri

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“Try my best”: Oscar Piastri optimistic about making moves on the opening lap at the Mexican GP

F1 Grand Prix of Mexico - Final Practice - Source: Getty

The run towards turn one at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a long one, often leading to some spectacular overtakes into the first corner. Oscar Piastri will start the race in P7 after Carlos Sainz's penalty is applied, which he carried forward from the US GP for causing a collision with Kimi Antonelli.

Piastri was questioned if he'll try to make moves into Turn 1 on the opening lap, to which he replied,

“I'll try my best, Yeah! That's gonna be an opportunity to make some progress forwards but we'll see what we can do.”

Max Verstappen will be starting in front of Oscar Piastri at the Mexican GP in P5, and the Australian will get the slipstream down the start-finish straight.