Oscar Piastri was left questioning what went wrong at the United States Grand Prix after Max Verstappen clawed his way back into the title race with a commanding victory.

Piastri looked set for his first drivers' championship after winning the Dutch Grand Prix in late August, a result that put him 34 points ahead of his McLaren team-mate and closest competitor Lando Norris.

However, the 24-year-old Australian has stalled since then, finishing behind both Norris and Verstappen in each of the last four races, as uncharacteristic mistakes and a dip in speed saw him finish fifth at Sunday's US Grand Prix. 

Verstappen has won three of the last four races, with those results moving the Dutchman to within 40 points of Piastri at the top of the standings, with Norris just 14 points off the lead with five rounds remaining.

MAX WINS IN DOMINANT STYLE!!

Verstappen moves himself firmly into the championship fight with an impressive victory in Austin #F1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/iyaFgTycrj

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 19, 2025

"Today, race pace could have saved you [after a difficult qualifying], but I didn't really have that," Piastri told Sky Sports.

"It's something I want to work on, but qualifying has still generally been consistently good.

"There have obviously been highs at certain points but this weekend, apart from Baku, has really been the first weekend where it has been a let-down.

"Even if it has been sub-par before, it has still been pretty good in moments.

"So there are some things to try and understand from this weekend, because clearly it just wasn't related to qualifying."

Asked what McLaren needed to analyse ahead of the final five races, Piastri added: "Trying to work out why it just didn't gel with the car this weekend is the first port of call, I guess.

"It was just difficult to get into a rhythm at all and that has been the big difference compared to other circuits we have been to, even recently."