Lando Norris admitted that he wishes the team hadn't decided to make the changes to his car they they did between the end of the Miami Sprint race and the start of qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Norris had been one of the strongest contenders for pole in Sprint qualifying, right up to the point where he suffered oversteer through the opening corners of his final flying lap and ended up starting the Sprint from P9.
Norris was then involved in a four-car incident at the start of the 19-lap Sprint that left his MCL38 parked by the side of the track, triggering a safety car while his damaged car was removed by track workers.
The car was repaired in time to take part in qualifying for the Grand Prix. "The team did a great job to get the car back together after the Sprint," Norris said. "Thank you to them after the unfortunate incident we were involved in this morning."
"There were moments where it looked like he wouldn’t be able to take part this afternoon," revealed McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. "The work done by the mechanics, with great support from the factory, was excellent and has put us in a strong position for tomorrow’s race.”
New rules for the Sprint weekend meant that the team could also make set-up changes to the car without breaching parc ferme rules. But in hindsight this might actually have backfired on Norris.
“We did what we thought was right, but on track sometimes things work out a little bit differently," he said. “We made some of those changes and I wish I could go back on them right now before tomorrow, but obviously we can't.
"We made some changes but potentially just not in the right direction," he explained. "We did better than [Friday] in terms of managing the tyres, but struggled a bit more with the car.
"I was a lot more confident yesterday than I was today " Norris added. "I lost a little bit today and I think that showed in the lap times.
Norris switched to medium tyres for his first runs in both Q2 and Q3 while others were on the soft compound. He was also running the teamn's extensive package of upgrades this weekend.
"We tried a few different compounds but ultimately the result is largely according to competitive order," explained Stella. "We had hoped for a little more after a strong performance yesterday."
Norris will start from fifth place, four places higher than the Sprint. "Obviously a better qualifying," he acknowledged. "It's close. So yeah, just some things to review.
"I think we should be higher up [but] I think it’s been a reasonable qualifying. I probably couldn’t have asked for a lot more," he admitted. P5 and P6 is good for us as a team.
"I think that’s where we deserve to be and that’s all we had in the car today, so we maximised it and we’ll try to get a good amount of points tomorrow.”
His team mate Oscar Piastri, who didn't have the latest upgrades this weekend, will line up alongside Norris in an all-McLaren third row of the grid. It gives the team some strategy possibilities when the lights go out on Sunday afternoon.
"There is potential for a strong race from fifth and sixth on the grid," noted Stella. "The pace Oscar displayed in the Sprint gives us encouragement."
"It felt like it was a good qualifying session," agreed Piastri. "The car was consistent the whole way through. I don’t think there was too much more in it to be able to push us any further forward, so I'm pleased.
"It was probably my most well-rounded qualifying of the year. Looking at the gaps to everyone and Lando, I am pretty happy with that.
“We maybe expected to be a bit closer to Ferrari, but they were stronger today," Piastri concluded. “Honestly, that’s pretty representative,”
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