Oscar Piastri’s Formula 1 championship hopes took a further blow in Las Vegas qualifying as he wound up fifth on the grid with McLaren team-mate and points leader Lando Norris on pole.
Piastri is on a poor run of form that has completely overturned the 34-point advantage he had after winning the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.
He is now 24 points behind Norris having failed to stand on the podium at each of the last five events, and now needs a turnaround to stop that run continuing in Vegas and give himself a fighting chance of still winning the championship with two grands prix left after this one.
McLaren’s prospects looked impossible to glean from a disrupted set of practice sessions and rain on Friday night in Vegas but it gradually became more competitive through a wet qualifying.
Piastri outpaced Norris in Q1 then only just made it through Q2 himself with the 10th-fastest time, as the session became something of a lottery between missing yellow flags and getting a lap at the right time on a slowly drying track.
“In Q1 I felt very good,” Piastri said. “Q2 a few little wobbles, but Q3 I felt good again and I feel like things were coming to us pretty nicely.”
Piastri held provisional pole in the first part of Q3 as McLaren came alive with everybody using intermediates, but there were rapid improvements throughout the top 10.
Norris regained the edge he had earlier in qualifying and was almost six tenths faster than Piastri as they began their final laps.
While Norris blitzed the first sector, Piastri was already four tenths slower after carrying a little too much speed into Turns 2 and 3 - but crucially was building a lap that should have at least been in contention to jump Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz for second on the grid.
However, he was thwarted by a Charles Leclerc mistake that triggered yellow flags just as Piastri was a couple of corners behind him on track.
Piastri therefore had to slow down even though Leclerc had recovered from his spin and rejoined safely by the time Piastri reached the same corner.
“It's a massive guessing game, especially in these conditions where you're improving, it's tough,” said Piastri.
“Where I saw the yellow flag, it's a blind corner, so I don't know if there's a car stopped somewhere that I'm going to have to do something suddenly.
“There's obviously a lot of risk involved in trying to game the system and lose enough time – it is what it is. But I think I couldn't have really done much, and if I had tried to keep pushing, it would have been a pretty big risk.”
Piastri admitted this has further complicated his title bid but having had so many setbacks of late, including circumstances going against him when he tried to recover weaker qualifying results in the race, he at least seemed happy that “between the car and myself we’re quick so we’ve got some pace for tomorrow, which is nice”.
“It's Las Vegas, after all, so a lot can happen,” Piastri added.
“We’ve seen pretty entertaining races here the last couple of years. A lot of action. So hopefully I can get myself involved on the right side of that action and make up some ground tomorrow.”
The Hadjar incident
The yellow that spoiled Piastri's qualifying also caused an unusual near-miss with Isack Hadjar, who was running a few seconds behind Piastri on track.
Hadjar certainly had not reduced his speed as much as Piastri for the single-waved yellow, having been told by his race engineer to keep pushing until Turn 12 - and seemed to get a radio message telling him the track was clear too.
His closing speed versus Piastri meant Hadjar had to go off line and he then locked up, prompting a big slide and battle to keep control even at low speed as he attempted to avoid the McLaren.
That was helped by Piastri realising Hadjar was there and deciding to take to the run-off himself just to be safe.
“Piastri slowed down way too much,” Hadjar said on the radio to his race engineer Pierre Hamelin, as he vented his frustration of losing what looked like a very good lap of his own.
Hadjar’s radio exchange
Hadjar: “Piastri, he slowed down way too much. ARGH I was on a good lap!…No way! No way! Yeah, no way!
Hamelin: “Yeah, charge on.”
Hadjar: “OK…How frustrating is that? Honestly. Honestly! Honestly, mate.”
Hamelin: “Incredibly frustrating.”
Hadjar: “It’s SO unfair! SO unfair! It was THE lap. It was THE lap, I was catching him. I can’t believe it! Shit!”
Hamelin: “Box box, stop at the bridge.”
Hadjar: “What a great joke. ARGH. I just can’t.”
Then a little Isack smack of the wheel as he is rolling in, before he comes to a stop. But wait there’s more.
Hadjar: “Why was there a yellow flag? Like there was nothing, nothing.”
Hamelin: “Leclerc went off. Leclerc went off, and then rejoined in front of Piastri.”
Hadjar: “Yeah of course. This guy ruined our session, like…oh my God, we are glued to him. To Leclerc.”
Hamelin: “Reminder for P0 please.”
Afterwards, Hadjar seemed annoyed that the unfulfilled potential of his session seemed to go unnoticed in his TV interviews, saying “they have absolutely no clue” because he was being congratulated for qualifying eighth.
“No, it should have been way better,” said Hadjar.
“Honestly, so far this year we've been driving in the rain only in races, with no visibility. So I never got to really try myself in the rain in an F1 car.
“Today was the first time, and honestly I enjoyed it very much. We are fast. So I'm happy to have done my first F1 quali in the rain now.”
Asked what could have been possible on a lap that seemed to be tracking well against George Russell in fourth and Piastri who ended up fifth, Hadjar said: “Minimum fifth. I was seven tenths up, you do the math. It's fifth and if I find more time then maybe more.
“But it's if, if, if. Should have done the lap earlier.”
