Oscar Piastri's Spanish Grand Prix qualifying session ended on a disappointing note, but the McLaren charger downplayed the impact of his late-session mistake.
On his only flyer in the final segment of qualifying at the Circuit de Catalunya, Piastri lost control and went off track in the final sector.
The mishap compelled the Aussie to abort his lap which left him without a time and classified 10th in the shootout. However, Piastri will line up 9th thanks to Sergio Perez’s three-place grid penalty
“It wasn't looking amazing,” Piastri admitted after Saturday’s session, quoted by Speedcafe.
“It certainly wasn't going to be pole. I don't feel like I threw away that much of a result.
“Honestly, I think it would have been maybe P7 or P8 at best, so I don't feel like I've made a mistake that's cost a big result.”
Since the beginning of his weekend in Spain, Piastri has struggled to match the pace of his teammate Lando Norris who capped his efforts on Saturday with a remarkable pole position.
It’s worth noting however that a strategic decision by McLaren to send Piastri out for a third run in Q1 backfired, as this deprived him of an additional set of soft tyres for Q3, limiting his options in the shootout.
“It's just not been very natural all weekend,” Piastri explained.
“In the last four or five races, from the first lap of practice, I've been able to be comfortable with the car and then push on from there.
“This weekend it's not been coming.”
McLaren was among the teams in Barcelona that did not implement any upgrades at the venue, its MCL38 virtually unchanged from Montreal, save for circuit specific changes.
Despite his relative underperformance, Piastri had no specific grievances to express regarding his car but admitted to feeling less confident in finding the limits of his MCL38 in Spain.
“Since we put the upgrades on, half of them in Miami and then the full set at Imola, it's been really good to drive,” he explained.
“Imola in particular I felt very, very comfy from lap one, and the car's not changed since then.
“This weekend, for whatever reason, has been more difficult. So nothing to do with the upgrades, just not clicked.
“It's been a little bit random. I think, for me, it's kind of an indicator that [I've] just not had much confidence with the car.
“If it's one or two corners consistently then you can kind of go ‘he's doing a better job', but one session has been one corner, the next one has been somewhere else.
“The last sector has been a little bit difficult, but never for the same reason. It's just been very, very tough for me to find the limit.”
And that predicament led to his mistake in qualifying.
“My lap wasn't going to be anything amazing at that point so I knew I didn't really have anything to lose,” he recounted.
“Just got a massive push of understeer, I don't know if I tried to carry a bit too much speed or had a gust of wind or whatever.
“But yeah, just not really been a very predictable day in terms of what the car's going to do.”
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