Norris left frustrated after qualifying by ‘impossible to drive’ McLaren

Lando Norris unleashed a torrent of frustration after Saturday's qualifying for the US Grand Prix despite his runner-up spot behind Max Verstappen, branding his McLaren car as unpredictable and “impossible to drive”.

The Briton endured a nervy session that began with an aborted first lap in Q1. Norris went wide at Turn 9 and lost time through the first corner, forcing him to rely on a second attempt just to scrape through.

From there, he somehow wrestled his car into P2, but nearly three-tenths off Verstappen’s pole time. The MCL39 clearly made life miserable for Norris, and his concerns started early.

A Handful Around COTA

“It’s just impossible to drive, I don’t know why,” Norris told Sky Sports with a shake of the head. “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,” he added.

Compared to Friday’s sprint qualifying, where he was comfortably faster, the drop-off in pace left Norris and McLaren puzzled.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

A Learning Curve Cut Short

McLaren’s struggles were compounded by a lost opportunity in Saturday’s Sprint, where Norris was eliminated at the first corner of the race amid the mayhem and missed out on vital setup data.

“We don’t know if it’s going to be amazing, terrible, around here because it’s so difficult with the bumps and the bottoming and the winds,” he said. “

“It’s unpredictable. So we were hoping to learn a lot this morning in the sprint in terms of how the car set-up was going to be from quali to race and how it changes, and the things that are good and bad and then hopefully make tweaks for this quali for the race tomorrow. But obviously, that didn’t go to plan.

“So, yeah, we’re certainly on the back foot. But I guess we will try not to use it as an excuse tomorrow.”

• United States Grand Prix - Qualifying results

Despite his team-mate Oscar Piastri starting further back in sixth, Norris isn’t counting on any breathing room when the lights go out. The 25-year-old made it clear his ambitions are far higher than damage limitation.

“I want to win. I hate standing on the second or third step,” Norris said bluntly. “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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