Oscar Piastri has suffered an embarrassing early exit in qualifying at this weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix after a McLaren gamble backfired.
The Australian found himself eliminated in the second part of qualifying after only going 13th quickest, with him unsure what happened to the rear grip on his McLaren.
Piastri had looked quick in the first part of qualifying and was expected to easily sail into the top-10 shootout, only to find himself needing a solid lap at the end of Q2.
Instead of fitting him with a set of fresh soft tyres, the Woking-based outfit opted to keep Piastri on used softs to try to get into Q3 without using a new set.
It backfired, with Piastri unable to improve enough to make Q3, missing out by 0.368s.
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