Lando Norris has stated he is not surprised that Max Verstappen beat him in the battle for the sprint pole at the United States Grand Prix. The British driver, after a strong start in SQ1 and SQ2, ultimately had to concede to the Dutchman, who was 0.071 seconds faster in his very last lap. Norris admitted to being satisfied with his session, especially since Red Bull has proven to be clearly faster in recent race weekends.
Although Norris narrowly missed the pole, he did manage to keep his McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri behind him. The Australian still leads the championship with a 22-point advantage. Starting ahead of Piastri is therefore crucial for Norris, especially as he – as it turned out on Thursday – has to deal with the ‘repercussions’ of their touché in the opening round of Singapore. What these entail exactly remains unclear for now.
‘Race Pace is Good’
“Of course, I would have liked to be on pole, but it’s no surprise that we’ve been slightly slower than Red Bull recently,” Norris responded afterwards. “I’m still quite satisfied. There were probably a few small things I could have done better – took a few bumps wrong, that kind of thing – but that’s the challenge of this circuit.”
Norris expects McLaren to have a better chance of putting pressure on Red Bull during the sprint race. “Normally, our race pace is slightly better,” he continued. “We’ve been struggling a bit with our qualifying pace all year, especially when it really matters – and that was the case today. So no surprise, but I have more hope for the race; I think we can make another step then.”
