There were two unpleasant surprises during qualifying for the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix: in Q1, both Red Bull and McLaren lost one of their drivers in the person of Sergio Pérez and Oscar Piastri, respectively.


The Australian finished the third free practice organized hours earlier still in the lead, so it was a cold shower that he could only occupy the 17th starting grid after that. In addition to retiring at the end of the first act for the first time since last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, he has been the only one in the field so far to reach Q3 in every qualifying session. Piastri expressed his disappointment about his worst qualifying performance this year, which was led to by leaving the track and then lack of grip.

“I didn’t really trust the medium tires, but my first lap on the soft tires looked very promising, but then I widened the track at turn 12 and the lap went away” – he explained his mistake. “After that I tried to run another lap, but I didn’t have any grip, the tires were simply too hot. Disappointing.”

F1: Disappointing elimination, Norris would be copied by Piastri 2

This season, the weekend in Mexico was the first in which Piastri was not present in Q3. (Photo: Bryn Lennon/Formula 1/Getty Images)

Looking ahead to the race, Piastri said that he would copy his teammate Lando Norris’ last year’s catch-up – as is known, the Brit started from 19th position and finished fifth.

“The car itself is very good, it’s just a shame that I have to start from the back. We’ll see what we can do, but ironically, Lando was in a similar situation last year, and still had a good race. We still have opportunities,” he added confidently.