Oscar Piastri to start the Mexican Grand Prix near back of the grid after qualifying one disaster

Oscar Piastri will have to be near perfect at the Mexican Grand Prix, after a ‘poor mistake’ at qualifying consigned him to a spot near the back of the starting grid.

Oscar Piastri has had a disastrous start to the Mexican Grand Prix, qualifying near the back of the grid after a “poor mistake” saw him fail to make it out of the first stage of qualifying for the first time this season.

The Aussie Formula One ace was expected to be among the challengers for pole position after topping the timesheets in Sunday morning’s final practice but he couldn’t replicate that blistering pace when he made an error after qualifying got underway at the high speed Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City.

The 23–year-old from Melbourne finished way back in 17th place, with only the top 15 going through to the second phase.

“I just went off in turn 12, got beached on the curve there and that was it. So my lap was easily going to be enough so it’s pretty frustrating to make that mistake. I lost about a second,” Piastri said.

“It’s just a tricky circuit but I don’t think today was down to it being tricky, it was just that I made a very poor mistake and that was it.”

Oscar Piastri had no luck in qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix

It was just the first time in 20 rounds this season that Piastri has been knocked out before the third and final stage of qualifying for the top 10.

But the McLaren driver is still hoping for a strong performance in the race after his British teammate Lando Norris also qualified 17th at last year’s Mexican Grand Prix but managed to overtake 12 cars and cross the line fifth.

“We had a similar kind of position with Lando last year,” Piastri said.

“So I’ll make sure I do my homework on how he moved through the field and try and do the same thing.”

Carlos Sainz took pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix

With Piastri watching from the McLaren garage, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz snatched pole position with a flying lap time of 1:15.946.

Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen joined Sainz on the front row right at the death after his first lap was erased for exceeding track limits.

Norris, who trails Verstappen by 57 points in the driver’s standings with five races to go, qualified third to line up alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with the two Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton just behind them.

Verstappen, who has won five of the last six Mexican Grands Prix, said he was also happy with his starting position after struggling with his car in the three practice sessions.

“I was already under a lot of pressure to have a good qualifying and then of course my lap time got taken away so that added a little bit more pressure,” he said.

“I’m very happy to be on the front row. I honestly didn’t expect that to be possible.

“I think it’s probably one of the hardest tracks to get right.

“Street circuits are difficult, and this one as well, because it has low downforce, so it’s very easy to have a lock up or a slide and then the tyres overheat. It’s one of the tricky ones on the calendar.”

Lando Norris will start from third.

Sainz earned the sixth pole position of his career with a lap he described as “almost perfect.”

“A lot of times around Mexico, you always have a feeling like you cannot put a lot together and it’s extremely difficult without much sliding,” he said.

“But my two laps in Q3 were pretty much technically almost perfect. I just put two really solid laps that were enough for pole and I’m very happy because that’s not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is.”

While Verstappen has a big lead in the drivers’ championship, the constructors’ title is wide open after Ferrari finished first and second at the last race in the United States.

McLaren currently lead Red Bull by 40 points but the famed Italian car manufacturer is just a further eight points adrift and with all the momentum.

“It seems like we are going in the right direction. Obviously looking forward to finishing the job, but at least the pole position shows progress,” Sainz said.

“For sure, our number one priority is to bring both cars home, but especially if you win the race, those extra seven points that you get when you win is important for a team in the constructors.

“So I’ll be just looking forward to get P1 into turn one and from there hopefully our race pace should be good enough to win it.”