Norris labells his pole position lap as "special"

Championship contender Lando Norris labelled his qualifying lap with which he secured pole position for today's United States Grand Prix as special, claiming that it means that he will start the race from "a nice place".

Norris made a great getaway in the Sprint, climbing from fourth to second through the first few corners. The middle part of the 100km dash indicated that the Briton might be able to challenge Verstappen for victory, but he struggled for grip in the dying stages of the 19-lap race, and he was even overtaken by the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

In qualifying, Norris delivered a brilliant lap at the start of Q3 to secure provisional pole. Although Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz looked might quick on their final push lap, the yellow-flag zone brought out by the Mercedes of George Russell meant that Norris managed to hang on to the first starting position for today's 56-lap Austin race.

"It was a beautiful lap. I wasn't going to go much quicker than I did. You know when you do a lap and think, it's going to be tough to beat that. I put everything on the line, it's what we needed to do. We've been on the back foot for much of the weekend. We've not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls. So, I had to put in a special lap, and I did that. Overall, a cool lap and a nice place to start the race tomorrow."

His team-mate Oscar Piastri never looked in contention for top places in Austin's main qualifying. In fact, the Australian has been struggling for pace across the whole weekend, and he was unable to take on the fight against his team-mate.

Speaking of his Saturday in Texas, the two-time F1 race winner noted: "It’s been a tricky Qualifying. I felt uncomfortable the whole session, so we probably got the most out of Quali.

"Obviously not ideal, but still an OK place to race from. We’ll work hard overnight and see what we can do tomorrow," Piastri concluded.