Piastri managed only the eighth fastest time in Q3, 0.588s off Norris, and will start seventh following Carlos Sainz’s grid penalty from the United States Grand Prix.
The result marked the fifth consecutive race in which Piastri has been outqualified by his teammate and his second-lowest qualifying of the year.
Piastri said he was at a loss for the lack of pace during the session.
“All feels okay, just no pace, which, yeah, it’s a bit of a mystery,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“It’s just been more or less the same gap all weekend.
“So, yeah, we’ll have a look at where it was going wrong then. Obviously a bit frustrating.”
He admitted the struggle for pace had persisted through this weekend and the previous one, with no clear reason yet.
“Not a huge amount to be honest, just that this weekend and last weekend really.
“It’s just felt like the pace hasn’t come and not 100% sure of why yet. So we’ll do some digging.”
Norris powers to Mexico GP pole, Piastri struggles to eighth
Despite the setback, Piastri said he was looking to make up positions at the start of the race, with the long run to Turn One providing an opportunity.
“I’ll try my best, yeah,” he said.
“That’s going to be an opportunity to make some progress forwards, but we’ll see what we can do,” he added.
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella acknowledged the performance gap between Norris and Piastri, attributing it in part to the challenging conditions and Piastri’s difficulty in extracting the car’s maximum from a slippery track.
“Oscar in relation to Lando loses a few milliseconds pretty much in every corner,” Stella told Sky Sports F1.
“So it’s more him getting the right feeling with these conditions and pushing that little bit more in every single corner.
“Obviously it is very difficult to go that little bit more without having an issue.
“So, something definitely that we can work on and improve for tomorrow.”
He added that he was confident Piastri could recover in the race, where he believes McLaren have strong race pace.
“I think the race pace is strong for both drivers,” he said.
“I’m sure Oscar will be able to recover some positions.
“It’s important for McLaren. It’s important for his championship. So we look forward to it.”
Stella also praised Norris for maximising the car in qualifying, which saw the British driver claim his fifth pole of the season and McLaren’s first pole since the Dutch Grand Prix.
“The lap is actually strong in pretty much every corner,” he said.
“The car has behaved well at all corner speeds. I think we had a few things that we need to regroup and understand, coming from the last few races.
“I think we understand a little bit better to use the car with the current package.
“The car has been, for me, well, and Lando maximised it.”
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