Oscar Piastri has expressed his devastation after missing out on Qatar Grand Prix glory to Max Verstappen on Sunday, with his title hopes suffering a major setback.
The Australian had gone into the day on pole but his Red Bull rival quickly overtook him - and never looked back.
In the race, McLaren failed to pit after the deployment of a safety car. That decision, ultimately, backfired spectacularly.
It sets up a blockbuster finale in Abu Dhabi next weekend, with Verstappen, Piastri and Lando Norris all poised to battle it out for the title.
On the team radio, Piastri sounded devastated. The Australian, who is chasing his maiden title, said he was 'speechless' and that there were 'no words'.
Elaborating to Sky Sports afterwards, the 24-year-old said: "Clearly we didn't get it right tonight.
"I drove the best race that I could and as fast as I could. There was nothing left out there.
Oscar Piastri was forced to settle for second in Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix
|REUTERS
"I tried my best but it wasn't to be tonight unfortunately. I think in hindsight it's pretty obvious what we would have done, but I'm sure we'll discuss it as a team.
"It's not all bad. It's been a really good weekend and the pace has been very strong.
"Obviously it's a little bit tough to swallow at the moment."
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"It's a disappointing result overall," he admitted. "We had the potential to win the race with Oscar, he deserved that. He was fastest in qualifying and the sprint.
"Certainly the podium was available for Lando but we lost the victory with Oscar and we lost the podium with Lando.
"Definitely not the outcome we wanted. Something we will review with the decision we made when there was the Safety Car on Lap 7.
"As usual we will learn from racing and will get stronger for the next event, which will become more important.
"It was a decision not to pit. In fairness, we didn't expect everyone else to pit.
Max Verstappen has boosted his hopes of F1 title glory with his triumph in Qatar | REUTERS"Once everyone pitted, it makes that the right thing to do. When you have the lead car, you don't know what the others are going to do.
"There could have been a loss for Lando if we pitted both cars with the double stack, but, effectively, the main reason was not expecting everyone else to pit.
"It was a decision. As a matter of fact it wasn't the correct decision."
On Piastri specifically, the Australian's visiblre anger, he added: "First of all, we understand Oscar being extremely disappointed. He did everything right this weekend. He was fast, solid and consistent.
"The drivers deserved to capitalise on their great performance.
"In terms of adapting the way we go racing, we just want to always keep options open for both drivers."