Piastri explains ‘disappointing’ Q1 exit in Mexico qualifying as he assesses prospects from back of the grid

Oscar Piastri has been reflecting on what led to his shock exit in Q1 of qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the Australian set to line up down in P17 on the grid.

Saturday’s action at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez got off to a promising start for Piastri as the 23-year-old topped the timesheets in third practice, leading the way from McLaren team mate Lando Norris.

READ MORE: Sainz clinches sensational pole position ahead of Verstappen and Norris during dramatic qualifying session in Mexico

However, his fortunes seemed to have dramatically reversed come qualifying. During the opening runs of Q1, Piastri locked up which resulted in him being some 1.3 seconds off the pace of Norris at the top.

His next effort was deleted due to track limits, dropping him down to P19 in the drop zone, and while he initially looked to have just scraped through by improving to P14, the fact that others bettered their times saw Piastri pushed down to P17 and out of the session.

When quizzed on what had happened – and how much pressure he had been under on his final lap – Piastri explained: “Yeah, I mean the medium [tyre] I just didn’t have much confidence on, and the first soft [tyre] lap I was doing was very positive, and then I just went wide at Turn 12 and that was that.

HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the action from qualifying in Mexico as Sainz storms to pole after shock Q1 exits for Perez and Piastri

“Then we tried to go again but I just had zero grip, the tyres were too hot. Disappointing.”

In terms of whether he can recover anything on race day – and if the MCL38’s good performance earlier in the day had given him some hope – the two-time race winner said: “Yeah, I mean the car is very good. It’s just a shame that we have to start from the back tomorrow.”

The scenario is one that McLaren were faced with just one year ago in Mexico when Norris started the race from down in P19. Given that the Briton went on to finish the Grand Prix in fifth, Piastri believes that there are still chances on Sunday.

READ MORE: Norris insists he's 'pretty happy' with third on Mexico City GP grid as he looks to close gap on Verstappen

“We’ll try and see what we can do, but yeah, ironically it was a similar position for Lando last year and he still had a good race,” he conceded. “There’s still opportunities.”