Oscar Piastri details impact of surprise Spa setback after qualifying struggle

Oscar Piastri has denied that his lack of track time on Friday had a direct impact on his performance during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Piastri missed half of the second practice session at Spa-Francorchamps due to a hydraulic leak that occurred at the end of FP1.

As he played catch-up with the rest of the field, he entered Saturday with less mileage than some of his rivals.

The Australian ended qualifying in eighth place, several positions down on team-mate Lando Norris, who managed to score a top-three result - albeit with a grid penalty looming.

When asked if the missed track time had an impact on his form, Piastri told media including RacingNews365: “It's never ideal.

“I still got a reasonable amount of qualifying laps or low fuel laps yesterday. 

“Would I have liked a couple more? Yes - but I think the struggles I've had today have not been related to that. 

“It's just been a very difficult car to drive, and very, very tough.

“If you can balance it on the edge, then the lap time seems to be there. But balancing it on the edge is pretty tough.”

Piastri caused a brief red flag during Q3 as he deposited gravel onto the race track after running wide at the end of the second sector.

It's an issue that also occurred on Friday - but the McLaren driver is not expecting the situation to get in the way of the grand prix.

“In qualifying in that corner, you're really pushing to the edge of the track,” he said. 

“In Q3 they had the time to just sweep the gravel off. In the race, once the cars drive through it, it'll clear it out of the way. 

“So unless someone properly goes off, it'll be fine.”