Piastri loses pace late, starts fourth row at Barcelona

Oscar Piastri’s downturn at Barcelona-Catalunya continued as he qualified seventh and finished fifth in the race, more than 30 seconds behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Piastri said qualifying was one of his cleanest sessions of the season, but he lost unexpected time in the final sector and ended up on the fourth row of the grid, just 0.1 seconds from third place.

He said Mercedes and Ferrari looked especially strong, while both McLaren drivers pointed to tire degradation and strategy as the factors likely to decide Sunday’s contest.