Lando Norris says he was almost surprised to qualify second for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix, as he felt his McLaren was “impossible” to drive.
Norris endured a hairy moment in Q1 after aborting his opening lap in the session due to a scrappy opening sector, where he lost time in the first corner and then went wide on the exit of Turn 9. His follow-up run on the same tyres proved enough to progress through to the next stage, later booking himself another front-row start alongside Max Verstappen.
Still, Norris was almost three-tenths down on Verstappen’s pole time, although the Red Bull driver didn’t get a second Q3 run as he ran out of time to cross the start line.
Norris told Sky that his MCL39 was a “handful” in qualifying and reckoned that the change in conditions versus Friday’s sprint qualifying (in which he was 0.587s faster than his grand prix qualifying effort) had hurt McLaren more than others.
“It’s just impossible to drive, I don’t know why,” Norris said on Sky Sports. “It was just clear from Q1 already, like every lap we did, we were between three tenths to half a second off of Max.
“It wasn’t just that they were very strong – it was more we were like [11th and 12th] in Q1 and weren’t a mile away from getting knocked out, so I was pretty worried after Q1.
“It’s just a handful to drive. Just every bump, every kerb, lap to lap different, just a handful, which is not the most common thing we say about our car, but it’s clear that we both were struggling today with it quite a bit.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“I don’t know why we’re struggling so much more than yesterday, where I was a bit more comfortable, and obviously lap time-wise a lot quicker yesterday than we were today.
“Clearly the track was a bit worse, the wind was a bit worse, and it seems to have impacted us a little bit more than some others, so we’ll try and understand why and learn from it.
“It’s almost a surprise to be P2, so I’ll take it.”
Asked if he would approach Sunday’s start differently to that in the sprint race, given Piastri was nudged into his course, Norris didn’t believe that there were any changes he needed to make.
He also reckoned that having team-mate and main title rival Oscar Piastri start in sixth was not really something he could rest his laurels on, with his focus still very much on winning Sunday’s race.
“I want to win. I hate standing on the second or third step,” Norris added.
“I’d rather not be there, I’m here to win the races and try to do that, so I’ll do everything I need to do to take that opportunity.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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