Oscar Piastri spent Friday evening in Mexico with more questions than lap time. The McLaren driver wound up only 12th in FP2 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, eight tenths adrift of pace-setter Max Verstappen after a scruffy qualifying sim that didn’t flatter his title bid or his rhythm.
He didn’t try to dress it up. Piastri called his soft-tyre, low-fuel effort “pretty average,” admitting he experimented heavily and missed the sweet spot. The long-run picture looked healthier for McLaren — Ferrari even told Charles Leclerc on the radio that the papaya pace over distance was strong — but in the headline numbers he was six tenths off teammate Lando Norris and tucked behind Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls.
That delta matters. Piastri arrived in Mexico City with a 14-point cushion at the top of the standings, a lead chiselled away in recent races as Verstappen and Norris have tightened the screws. McLaren did a deep dive on Piastri’s package after Austin and found no smoking gun. The Australian’s verdict: a handful of little things, each worth a sliver, together costing more than he can afford right now.
“All small things, but when you put them all together, they add up,” he told Sky, adding that he felt “reasonable” overall despite the messy quali work. The subtext was clear: there’s a car under him that can do the job, if he tidies his own.
Not everyone was in a forgiving mood. Jacques Villeneuve, never shy with a scalpel, called it a continuation of form that’s drifted since Baku. “It’s messy,” the 1997 champion said on Sky. “Normally that means a tenth, two-tenths, a little mistake here and there, not setting the car right. It gets into your head. And seeing Max again in front, that’s going to eat him all evening.”
Verstappen did indeed sit on top when the chequered flag fell in FP2, 0.153s clear of Leclerc with Norris fourth. The Red Bull driver is 40 points off the championship lead but has hacked more than 60 from that deficit in recent rounds as his team rediscovered sharpness — and brought fresh bits to Mexico. It’s not a title charge yet, but it’s beginning to look and feel like one.
If there’s comfort for Piastri, it’s in the race pace reads. McLaren’s long runs have been a reliable backbone this year; if they hold that line on Sunday, the single-lap deficit can be managed — to a point. The immediate problem is Saturday. A tight midfield, traffic, and the fine margins of Mexico’s unusual conditions can turn a small wobble into a big starting headache. The learning list from FP2 will need to be short and solved before Q3, not after it.
Norris, for his part, looked the more planted of the two McLarens across the day and was just a quarter of a second off Verstappen in the quali sim. Piastri’s gap to his teammate — nearly six tenths — won’t sit well inside the orange garage. Nor will the fact he’s now consistently the third-fastest of the three title protagonists on Fridays.
There’s also the human bit. Piastri’s led this thing for 15 races. When you’ve had the view from the front for that long and you start feeling breath on your neck — one car in the same garage, one across the aisle with a charging Red Bull — it changes the psychology of the weekend. Villeneuve went full track-coach with his analogy: look backwards while you’re running, and you’ll trip.
Still, there was no panic in Piastri’s voice, just the acceptance of a day that didn’t land. He tried things. Some didn’t work. He’ll keep the bits that did and throw the rest out before qualifying. And Mexico, as ever, is rarely won on a Friday.
The scoreboard doesn’t care how “average” a lap felt, only where it leaves you when it matters. For Piastri, that moment comes in Q3. He doesn’t need to find everything — just enough to make Verstappen glance in the mirrors and Norris glance at the delta. If McLaren’s long-run strength holds and the quali lap finally clicks, the title picture stays orange. If not, a very familiar shade of blue might start filling the frame.
