McLaren has made vital tweaks to its car between the sprint race and the main qualifying
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has revealed that his outfit has elected to make key tweaks to the MCL38 between the 100km F1 Austin Sprint and the qualifying session for today's United States Grand Prix.
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-ma.McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has revealed that the Woking-based outfit has made some adjustment after the sprint race which should help the team look after the tyres better in the 56-lap Unites States Grand Prix.
"We’ve had a strong Qualifying session at COTA, with Lando and Oscar delivering good laps, going comfortably through Q1 and Q2, and then securing P1 and P5 on the grid. Those are good starting positions from which to bring home some important points tomorrow.
"We made some adjustments to the car this afternoon, based on what we learned in the Sprint. Lando maximised the performance of the car, while Oscar has some potential that we aim to realise tomorrow in the race.
"We’ve got work to do overnight, understanding tyre management for tomorrow. It’s going to be a tight, interesting race, in which there will be very little between ourselves, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull."
