Norris: “We are where we deserve to be”

Norris: “We are where we deserve to be”
Norris: “We are where we deserve to be”

We had left the Woking team with three victories in the four races since the end of the summer break, and we imagined the chrome single-seaters for the occasion returning to the forefront on the Circuit of the Americas. This Friday, nothing happened. Lando Norris, Max Verstappen’s main rival in the fight for the title, will start the Sprint three positions behind the Dutchman, who set the best time. For Oscar Piastri, things went even less well since the Australian will start 16th, after seeing his best lap deleted for failure to respect track limits in Q1.

If the Briton was understandably disappointed after his Sprint qualifications, optimism still reigned, saying that the final performance could have been much worse. The No. 4 McLaren MCL38 does not offer the expected balance, and with only one free practice session before diving into qualifying, it is difficult to optimize the car’s settings…

“It didn’t go very well, the day wasn’t very good! “, he explained to the official website. “I struggled a lot with the balance of the car all day, honestly. I’m happy with fourth place because it could have been a lot worse, my lap in Q3 was really bad. The day could have been better but also worse. I hope to go back up, that’s the plan, but in terms of pace I think we are where we deserve to be. So the plan is to go back up, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to! »

For Piastri, competition has returned

Across the garage, Oscar Piastri also noted that the McLaren seems less fit this weekend. But for the Australian, this does not come so much from a lack of performance from the British team, but rather from the renewed form of the other teams, who took advantage of the break to refine their last big package of developments, made on Uncle Sam’s land.

“The majority of my lap was good, I made a few mistakes in the last sector, and in the penultimate corner I just tried to go too fast! It’s a real shame, but the good thing about Sprint weekends is that there is a new qualifying session on Saturday. The car is not performing too badly, it is probably not as good as in the last races, but I think that is mainly due to the others, who have improved their cars. We’re not very far but it’s a little more difficult for us. »

It remains to be seen whether the papaya single-seaters, which are at the head of the constructors’ championship, will be able to be more spirited the rest of the weekend!

READ ALSO > Max Verstappen takes sprint pole in Austin, Norris only 4th

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