McLaren star Oscar Piastri explains: This is the main concern plaguing his team

Neither of the two McLaren stars has really got into their stride in Austin yet: Lando Norris did manage to finish third fastest in the first practice session, putting him in the top three. However, he ended the day in seventh place. Things went even worse for Oscar Piastri, who completed a total of 50 laps and ultimately had to settle for eighth place.

The Australian was more than a second off the day’s fastest time, set by Ferrari star Charles Leclerc. The gap to his team-mate, however, was a narrow 14 thousandths of a second. But that was little consolation for the 25-year-old from Melbourne.

“That was an interesting first day. It’s clear that we still need to find a bit more time,” Piastri summed up in his usual matter-of-fact manner once the work was done. “We tried out various things and now need to analyse everything to see how we can improve and get the best possible performance out of the car,” he added.

“The main concern is clear: we’re struggling with grip; we just can’t get any traction, so we need to step it up in that area. We’ll see what we can achieve by qualifying to put ourselves in a better position for the time trial,” he added with a sigh.

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