Oscar Piastri admitted that he only had himself to blame for his early demise from qualifying in Mexico City on Saturday, the McLaren driver admitting to a “poor mistake” that left him stranded in Q1.
A misjudgment at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez’s Turn 12 which saw his car bottom out over the kerbs, veering him off course and over the track’s limits which resulted in a deleted lap time.
Before the costly mishap, the Australian had been significantly improving on his previous best lap time, which made the mistake even more disheartening.
"I just went off in the Turn 12, got beached on the kerb there, and that was it," Piastri told Sky Sports F1. "My lap was easily going to be enough, so it's very frustrating to make that mistake. I lost about a second.
"It's just a tricky circuit but I don't think today was down to it being tricky. It was just I made a very poor mistake, and that was it."
The error saw the Aussie fail to advance to Q2 for the first time this season.
However, a similar blunder by Lando Norris in qualifying a year ago in Mexico City, which forced him to start his race at the back of the grid, didn’t prevent the Briton from finishing fifth at the end of the day.
“We had a similar kind of position for Lando last year,” Piastri noted. “So I’ll make sure I do my homework on how he went through the field and try and do the same.
“I think it’s going to be tough because the field looks reasonably tight. But I think we’ve got some pace onboard this weekend, so try and use it to get through.”
Piastri wasn’t the only high-profile driver who fell at the first hurdle in Saturday’s qualifying, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez also concluding his session early in 18th position, just one spot behind his McLaren rival.
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