'Shocking' U.S. GP Sprint qualifying lap could have been worse - Norris

Lando Norris believes he could have been even lower than fourth on the grid for the Sprint at the United States Grand Prix due to how difficult his Friday was.

Max Verstappen set the fastest time in the Sprint Shootout and will lead the field on Saturday, with his main title rival Norris down in fourth place, 0.25s adrift. The McLaren driver admitted he was not happy with his car at any stage on Friday and felt his lap was so poor that a spot on the fourth row is better than it might have been.

“Not very good,” Norris said. “P4. Not a great day. Been struggling the whole day, honestly, with the balance and the set-up. In a way, happy with P4, because I feel like it could have been a lot worse, but my lap was shocking. Not a terrible day, could have been worse, could have been better, but I’ll take it.”

Norris dismissed any suggestion that the upgrade McLaren introduced at COTA could be the cause of his struggles, and says he expects to be in a similar position over a Sprint race distance too.

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“No, not really [much chance to progress]. I hope to move forward -- that’s my plan -- but on pace, I think we are where we deserve to be today," he said. "So my plan is to go forward, but I have no idea how much we can.”

It was an even worse day for teammate Oscar Piastri who dropped out in SQ1 when his best time was deleted for exceeding track limits, but the Australian is grateful it wasn’t in the main qualifying session.

“Most of the lap was good,” Piastri said. “I made a few mistakes in the last sector and, obviously, in the second-last corner I tried to go a bit too fast and that’s the result, so it’s a shame, but if there’s one good thing about sprint weekends [it's] that we have another shot tomorrow.

“[The car] feels OK, maybe not quite as strong as what it has been in the last few races, but I don’t think that’s because we are weaker. Maybe the others are a little bit strong. Let’s see. We’re still hopefully in the fight … so it’s certainly not a case of [being] miles behind, but maybe it’s a bit more difficult for us than in some of the other weekends.”