Piastri’s session came after a difficult day that began with repairs to his car following a Sprint crash earlier on Saturday.
Despite McLaren’s efforts to get him back on track in time for Q1, the Australian never appeared comfortable behind the wheel, finishing over half a second adrift of Max Verstappen’s pole time.
“Not really any mistakes, just didn’t feel like I really got into a rhythm for the whole session and just struggled,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1 after qualifying.
“That was honestly a battle.”
It marks Piastri’s second-lowest starting position of the season and continues a tricky weekend in Austin, where he has been consistently behind teammate Lando Norris on pace, with the Briton finishing second behind Verstappen in qualifying.
With Verstappen dominating both the Sprint and qualifying, the championship leader faces another fight to limit the points damage in Sunday’s race.
Since his victory in the Netherlands, where he extended his title advantage to a season-high 34 points, Piastri has been outscored by both Verstappen and Norris.
Verstappen has cut the gap by 49 points over that span, including from his Sprint win earlier in the day, while Norris has taken 12 out of the Australian’s lead.
Despite the setback, Piastri remained optimistic about turning things around in the race.
“When you don’t have the pace you want, it’s never the nicest feeling,” he said.
“But there’s a lot of opportunities tomorrow.
“Hopefully our race pace will be good. It’s a track you can overtake on, so we’ll see what we can do.
“the weekend is far from over.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Piastri’s struggles came down to rhythm and the tricky conditions, with the 24-year-old still finding his footing after missing running earlier in the day.
“I think when we talked before about finding the rhythm in this windy condition, and without having run in the morning, it just took a little bit longer for him,” Stella explained.
“There’s a couple of places in which the driving goes a bit untidy and the gaps are not big… when you miss a couple of tenths in a couple of corners, it can cost many positions.”
Stella praised his driver’s racecraft and backed him to recover ground on Sunday, where hot conditions and tyre management are expected to play a key role.
“For Oscar, it’s about now going into a racing rhythm and exploiting the strengths of the car and the strengths of Oscar in terms of racecraft for tomorrow,” he said.
The United States Grand Prix begins at 2pm local time on Sunday (6am AEDT Monday).
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