Piastri started the race sixth on the grid and, despite a solid launch, was unable to challenge Lewis Hamilton ahead or match teammate McLaren Lando Norris, who finished second behind Max Verstappen.
Verstappen, who led every lap from pole at the Circuit of the Americas, now trails Piastri by 40 points after claiming 119 of a possible 133 points over the last four races, including three wins in that stretch.
Meanwhile, Norris has closed the gap to just 14 points with five races remaining.
Reflecting on his weekend, Piastri admitted he struggled to find rhythm in the car.
“I think trying to work out why I just didn’t gel with the car this weekend is the first port of call, I guess,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“It was just difficult to get into a rhythm at all, and that’s been the big difference compared to other circuits that we’ve been to, even more recently.”
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He also acknowledged the importance of qualifying but suggested it was not the sole issue.
“Yeah, it is very important wherever you go, I think, today, race pace could have saved you, but I didn’t really have that either, so yeah, it’s something I want to work on obviously,” Piastri said.
“But I think qualifying still generally has been consistently good.
“There’s obviously been the highs at certain points but this weekend, apart from Baku, has really been the first weekend where it’s been a letdown.
“Even if it’s been subpar before, it’s still been pretty good.
“So, yeah, some things to try and understand from this weekend because clearly it wasn’t just related to qualifying.”
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It was Piastri’s second-lowest finish of the season and only the fifth time he has completed a race without reaching the podium.
He ended the race 29 seconds behind Verstappen and 22 seconds behind teammate Lando Norris, marking the fourth consecutive race where he has been outscored by both Verstappen and Norris since his Dutch Grand Prix win in August.
Asked about the championship, Piastri remained calm, insisting there was no need to prioritise him or Norris.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“We’re still so incredibly tight and we’ve both said we wanted an opportunity to try and fight for the championship because we deserve it.
“So I think it’s far too close to start picking one or the other.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said they would review what had happened with Piastri across the weekend, and despite a mixed result overall for the team still stressed the positives.
“The pace wasn’t great today but I’m sure he will come back strong in Mexico,” said Stella.
“After not having scored any points yesterday in the Sprint it was important today to bring home some points with both drivers.
“[It] confirmed that we have the pace to compete for the win. I think today without having to deal with Lando with Leclerc for pretty much the entire race it would have been an interesting fight with Verstappen for the win.
“This is positive to confirm after some difficult races previously.”
Stella added that the lack of Sprint race data may have affected car setup, but the performance potential was clear.
“When you don’t have the data from the Sprint race you have to accept that you’re not going to maximise some setup parameters which come with a lot of performance,” he said.
“So we knew that we were a little compromised. And in a way this reassures us even more that the pace is in the car and we need to do a good job extracting this pace for the future races.”
Stella added that the focus still remained on ensuring both Piastri and Norris finished in the top two of the drivers’ championship, despite Verstappen’s surge.
“That’s what we are working hard for,” he said.
“I think we have learned a few things over the course of this last four races in which we were not scoring the usual results. There’s been good learning.
“I’m sure this will be important for the finale of the season and definitely optimistic that we can achieve the P1 & P2.”
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