McLaren's Oscar Piastri says he struggled to get into the right rhythm during Formula 1 United States Grand Prix qualifying after lacking confidence in his MCL39.
After contact with Nico Hulkenberg at the start of Saturday morning's sprint saw Piastri and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris eliminated on the spot, the McLaren mechanics faced a huge repair job to get ready for grand prix qualifying a few hours later.
Both Piastri and Norris made it to the start of Q1, but initially appeared on the back foot adapting to the windier track conditions around the Circuit of the Americas, advancing to Q2 in 11th and 12th.
But while Norris rallied to qualify second - three tenths behind polesitter Max Verstappen - Piastri never really managed to get going, scraping through Q2 only to qualify sixth.
Piastri said he felt ill at ease in the McLaren, which left him half a second off Verstappen's pace throughout, but didn't want to call in his lack of morning running as an excuse for a muted performance.
"No, I don't think so. The car was back in one piece and as far as I'm aware, set up how we intended," he explained. "It all felt normal, it's just the kind of behaviour that we've had a couple of times through the season came out to play again today."
The Australian added: "It's a track that is tough and you need a lot of confidence on. There's a lot of corners to make you pay for it if you don't have that feeling.
"I feel like yesterday there were a few relatively clear opportunities to try and find [time]. But today I felt like my laps were maybe not the best laps of my life, but in line with laps I've done before. It's just unfortunate the lap time didn't come."
But the 24-year-old isn't worried there is an underlying trend after an off-kilter weekend last month in Azerbaijan.
"I don't feel like I've made any major mistakes from a driving side of things, it's just not clicked," he said.
"I haven't felt comfortable with the car, really. That's been the story of this weekend but I don't think it's been the story of the last few."
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