Oscar Piastri says McLaren's double top-ten result in qualifying in Barcelona flattered its performance while race day brought the team "back to reality".
Piastri and teammate Lando Norris qualified respectively P10 and P3 which augured well for team papaya come Sunday.
Unfortunately, it all went downhill as soon as the lights went off at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix.
A contact with Lewis Hamilton at the first corner and a damaged front wing undermined Norris' afternoon from the outset, the Briton eventually crossing the checkered flag a lowly P17.
Piastri was able to remain on the fringes of the points for most of the race but lost ground in the closing stages of the event to conclude his day P13.
"A long afternoon, just didn't have the pace to really do anything," he commented. "It was a pretty poor first lap from myself, which didn't help things, but I don't think we really had the pace to stay in the points anyway."
Indeed, the Aussie believed that putting points on the board was always going to be a challenge for McLaren despite the team's outperformance in qualifying.
"I don't think we're in normal circumstances able to put the car that high up on the grid," he added.
"Today was maybe a bit more back to reality, probably a more difficult day than what we would have hoped."
McLaren's current woes appear to be linked to a disparity between how the MCL60's tyres react in different conditions.
"We seem to switch on the tyre very well when it's cold and difficult conditions, like Monaco on the Intermediates was the same story as qualifying here," Piastri explained.
"So we need to try and work on that with the team and see what we can do to make our lives easier on Sundays."
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