Oscar Piastri’s six-month grip on the Formula One world drivers’ championship is in danger of being instantly wiped away after he only qualified eighth for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Australian has been perched on top of the points standings since April but is suddenly under enormous pressure to hold off his McLaren teammate Lando Norris after seeing his lead slashed from 34 points to 14 after failing to finish on the podium in each of the last three races.
And now Piastri is facing a huge challenge to avoid losing the lead as early as Monday morning after Norris snatched his fifth pole position of the season with a sensational lap time of 1:15.586.
Unable to keep up, Piastri could only manage eighth but will start the race from seventh after Carlos Sainz incurred a five-grid penalty place at the last race in the United States that carried over.
Charles Leclerc qualified second ahead of his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton with George Russell fourth for Mercedes and Max Verstappen fifth behind the wheel of his Red Bull.
If Norris, who is currently second in the championship, goes on and wins the race from pole position, Piastri will have to finish at least in the top four to retain his championship lead with just four races to come after Mexico but with the momentum slipping away.
Piastri’s late dip in form is a major concern for his title hopes because he also looks to be down on confidence as well as pace.
In the first 16 races of the season, he qualified in the top three 15 times, with his worst placing fourth spot.
But in his last four races, he’s qualified, ninth, third, sixth and now eighth.
“There’s just no pace which is a bit of a mystery,” Piastri told Sky Sports.
“It’s been more or less the same gap all weekend, so we’ll have a look at where it was going wrong. Obviously it’s a bit frustrating.
“Not a huge amount has changed around how I’m feeling in the car. It’s just this weekend and last weekend it’s felt like the pace hasn’t come.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure why yet, so we’ll do some digging.
“I’ll try my best. That’s going to be an opportunity to make some progress forwards. We’ll see what I can do.”
“I’m happy to be back on pole. It’s actually been quite a long time, so it’s a good feeling,” Norris said.
“The lap was one of those where you don’t really know what happened. It felt decent but when I saw the time I was very pleasantly surprised.
“I’ve been feeling good all weekend, especially today. I got a little bit nervous of the Ferrari at the end, but I pulled it out when it mattered and I’m very happy.
“I’ve not been sleeping well lately so maybe that’s the key to it all?
“I’ve had some good races here in the past and will focus on what I can control. That’s all I can do
“I’m here to win.
“I’ll be looking forward. I know I’m going to have some quick guys behind me.
“It’s a long run down to Turn One and so forth. The race pace from the Ferraris is normally very strong.
“I’m expecting a battle, I’m not expecting it to be easy. Eyes forward and I’ll see how much I can win by.”
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said Piastri was clearly struggling with the car.
“There’s a bit to review on Oscar’s side,” Stella said. “It’s more difficult for him to use the car when the conditions are sliding, like it was also in Austin.
“It’s something we need to review and improve for tomorrow.
“Oscar, in relation to Lando, loses a few milliseconds pretty much in every corner, so it’s about him getting the right feeling in these conditions and pushing that little bit more in every single corner.
“That is difficult to push that little bit more without having an issue.
“I think the race pace is strong for both drivers. I’m sure Oscar will be able to recover some positions.”
Piastri’s best hope is that Norris does not win and collect maximum points.
Despite starting from pole position, the Englishman might have his work cut out holding the lead going into the first turn at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit because the distance to the braking point is 830m, which allows cars from behind to get a slipstream.
Only two of the last seven drivers who have started from pole position in Mexico have gone on and won the race.
Verstappen has won five of the last seven Mexican Grands Prix and three of the last four races this season to get within 40 points of Piastri but was also struggling to find his groove.
“If we knew, we would change it and unfortunately we don’t,” the Dutchman said.
“We’ve tried so many things and it’s not been good. It’s not the lack of trying, it’s not finding it.
“We went into qualifying trying something again and we didn’t get it quite right in some corners. It made it better in some places, but in other areas more difficult and that didn’t allow me to push.
“I knew from the first run of Q1 that was not going to be it.
“Basically, everything we tried didn’t really work.
“There isn’t really a recovery drive when you have no pace. I need people to retire in front of me to go ahead.
“Every lap that I did this weekend has not been good. In the short run or the long run it never felt in the window and that is not going to suddenly change tomorrow for the better.”
