by Oscar Piastri was clear that his mistake in the first qualifying session of the weekend in Austin did not leave him in a bad position for the main event.
However, he admitted it will be “difficult” to score points in Saturday’s sprint race after being eliminated in the first lap.
Piastri dropped out of the sprint qualifying surprisingly early after his best time of the session was canceled due to exceeding the track limits.
The McLaren driver had made it through the second phase of sprint qualifying without any problems, but ran too wide in the penultimate corner, turn 19, dropping from the top 10 to 16th and retiring from the session.
“Most of the lap was good,” Piastri told the official F1 channel after his retirement. “I made a few mistakes in the last sector and of course in the second to last corner, I just tried to go a little too fast and this is the result. So it’s a shame, but the good thing about sprint weekends is that we have another chance tomorrow.”
McLaren was the fastest team in the final laps, but was beaten for the sprint pole by Max Verstappen and Red Bull, as Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris could only secure fourth place on the grid in the sprint race. Although Norris admitted on Friday that he had not felt comfortable with his car, Piastri said his car’s balance felt “fine” before the sprint race.
“Maybe not quite as strong as in the last few races, but I don’t think that’s because we’re weaker. I think the others seem to be maybe a little bit stronger,” Piastri explained. “So let’s see.
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“I’m sure we’re still fighting well. It’s certainly not like we’re miles behind, but it’s maybe a little more difficult for us than some other weekends.”
However, Piastri played down his chances of finishing in the top eight from 16th on the grid and securing points in the 19-lap race.
“It will definitely be difficult to get the points from where we are now, but we will try,” he said. “We’ll see what we can do.”
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2024 United States Grand Prix
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