Oscar Piastri has reflected on a tough Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren, after the Australian failed to secure points. After both Piastri and Norris qualified in the top ten their races unravelled at the start, after the Briton made contact with Lewis Hamilton which forced him to pit with front wing damage on the opening lap. Piastri was also picked off by Sergio Perez and George Russell in the opening stages, then later fell into the clutches of Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc after McLaren went a different way on strategy. The Australian was eventually passed by the Alpine and Ferrari drivers, and conceded that McLaren did not have the pace to convert their qualifying performance into points. "A long afternoon, just didn't have the pace to really do anything. It was a pretty poor first lap from myself, which didn't help things, but I don't think we really had the pace to stay in the points anyway," he told media, including RacingNews365.com .
With the mistakes from Perez and Russell which put them out in Q2, Piastri believes McLaren would struggle to pull off their Q3 performance in "normal circumstances" as shown by their pace in the race. "I don't think we're in normal circumstances able to put the car that high up on the grid. Today was maybe a bit more back to reality, probably a more difficult day than what we would have hoped." Piastri wants answers as to why their car works well in tricky changeable conditions, but is incapable of managing the tyres during the races. "We seem to switch on the tyre very well when it's cold and difficult conditions; like Monaco on the Intermediates was the same story as qualifying here. "So need to try and work on that with the team and see what we can do to make our lives easier on Sundays."
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