Norris rues ‘shocking’ Sprint Qualifying lap in Austin as he admits ‘struggling the whole day’

Lando Norris has labelled his final Sprint Qualifying lap at the United States Grand Prix as “shocking” after taking P4 in the session, with the Briton admitting to struggling with car issues throughout the day in Austin.

After ending the weekend’s sole practice hour in fourth earlier in the day, Norris found himself in the same position by the end of SQ3, having been unable to beat the early benchmark set by the Mercedes of George Russell – a time that Max Verstappen went on to better by just 0.012s.

READ MORE: Verstappen pips Russell to Sprint Qualifying pole in Austin by 0.012s

Asked how he reflected on the session after jumping out of the car, Norris answered: “Not very good – I’m P4. Not a great day, I’ve been struggling the whole day honestly with the balance and the set-up.

“In a way [I’m] happy with P4 because I feel like it could have been a lot worse, but my lap was shocking. So yeah, not a terrible day – it could have been worse, could have been better, but I’ll take it.”

In terms of what had caused his lap to be “shocking” – and whether it could be down to not having had the time to dial in McLaren’s updates yet – Norris said: “It’s not a new package, it’s pretty much the same.”

Attentions will now turn to Saturday’s Sprint and, when quizzed on whether he has any sense of what his race pace could be in the event, the 24-year-old commented: “No, not really.

“I hope to go forward, that’s my plan, but on pace I think we are where we deserve to be today, so my plan is to go forward but I have no idea how much we can.”

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It was a tough day on the other side of the McLaren garage for Oscar Piastri, with the Australian eliminated in SQ1 after his lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 19, meaning that he will start the Sprint from P16.

“Most of the lap was good,” Piastri reflected afterwards. “I made a few mistakes in the last sector, and obviously second to last corner I just tried to go a bit too fast and that’s the result. A shame, but if there’s one good thing about Sprint weekends it’s that we have another shot tomorrow.”

When asked if the car has generally been feeling good so far in Austin, Piastri acknowledged that it may not be at the level that the team have experienced during other weekends recently but suggested that this may be down to their rivals improving.

“It feels okay, maybe not quite as strong as what it has in the last few races,” the 23-year-old responded. “But I don’t think that’s because we’re weaker, I think the others seem a little bit stronger maybe."

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from Sprint Qualifying at the United States Grand Prix

Speaking before pole had been decided in SQ3, Piastri continued: “Let’s see, I’m sure we’re still well and truly in the fight. Lando can definitely still go out and get pole for the Sprint, so it’s certainly not a case of we’re miles behind but it’s maybe a little bit more difficult for us than a few of the other weekends.”

And in terms of the chances of fighting back to score points in the Sprint, Piastri said of his prospects: “We’ll see. It’s going to be tough, definitely, to get to the points from where we are, but we’ll try. We’ll see what we can do.”