Piastri to copy ‘Norris homework’ after shock Mexico failure

Oscar Piastri insists he will “do his homework” on team-mate Lando Norris’s 2023 race after a shock Q1 exit at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Hours after topping FP3, Piastri was dumped in Q1 to end his run of being the only driver to make Q3 at every race this season. 

The Australian’s first lap in the segment was on the medium tyres, but a lock-up prompted a switch to soft tyres. His first attempt was scrubbed due to a track limits violation on the exit of Turn 12 entering the stadium section. 

A subsequent effort on the same set of softs was not enough to clear him from danger, joining Franco Colapinto, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu in being eliminated at the first hurdle.

Piastri will start 17th, the same place where team-mate Norris began last year’s race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The Briton climbed through the field to finish fifth, a lesson the Australian is keen to learn from.

“We had a similar position for Lando last year, so I’ll do my homework on how he went through the field and try to do the same,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1.

Reflecting on his wretched qualifying, Piastri added: “I just went off, got beached on the kerb and that was that.

“It was easily going to be enough, so it is very frustrating to make that mistake. I lost about a second. 

“It is a very tricky circuit, but I don’t think it was down to it being tricky. It was just a very poor mistake, and that was it.”