Lando Norris insisted the collision with Oscar Piastri that saw both McLarens retire from the Sprint will not change his approach to the start of Sunday’s United States Grand Prix as he vowed to go for the win on what could a prove a crucial day in F1’s title race.
At the end of a tumultuous Saturday for McLaren after their title-contending drivers collided for the second successive weekend – this time to race-ending effect – at the first corner of the Sprint race, Norris bounced back to a greater degree than Piastri in the later qualifying session for the Grand Prix to take second on the grid behind Max Verstappen.
Championship leader Piastri struggled to sixth place, a starting position which opens the door for both Verstappen and Norris to take more points out of the Australian’s dwindling title lead in Sunday’s 56-lap race.
And Norris, who trails his team-mate by 22 points having outscored him in the previous three grands prix, says what happened in the Sprint has no bearing on his mindset for the race.
Asked by Sky Sports F1 if he would approach Sunday’s start to the uphill Turn One any differently, Norris said: “No, because comparing to this morning, I did nothing wrong there.
“I want to win. I hate standing on the second or third step [of the podium], I’d rather not be there.
“I’m here to win the races and I’ll try and do that, so I’ll do everything I need to do to take that opportunity.”
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Highlights from the qualifying at the United States Grand Prix.
Norris will share the front row with Verstappen for the second day running at the Circuit of the Americas.
However, unlike in Friday’s Sprint Qualifying when the two drivers were separated by just 0.071s, the gap on Saturday between the cars grew to a more dominant 0.291s in the Red Bull’s favour.
Norris described his McLaren as having been “just impossible to drive” around a bumpy track, which made him qualifying second “almost a surprise”.
And given the always-limited practice running on a Sprint weekend and the fact that neither McLaren car completed a lap of the Sprint, Norris conceded they go into Sunday facing plenty of unknowns.
“We have not done more than three laps in a row and not more than 40kg of fuel. I have no idea. We don’t know if it will be amazing or terrible,” he said.
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Jenson Button and Karun Chandok are joined by George Russell to analyse the Turn 1 incident involving the Mclarens at the US GP Sprint.
“It’s so difficult with the bumps, the bottoming, the wind. It’s unpredictable.
“We were hoping to learn a lot from the Sprint in terms of how the car set-up changes from qualifying to the race, then make tweaks. That didn’t go to plan, so we are on the backfoot. I guess we will try not to use that as an excuse tomorrow.”
Do McLaren still have an ace up their sleeve for race?
After an initial challenge from Mercedes’ George Russell, Verstappen ultimately won the 19-lap Sprint comfortably enough from pole to cut his championship deficit to Piastri to 55 points.
But amid weekend-long warm weather in Austin, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella remains hopeful that his team’s renowned tyre-degradation strengths will ultimately pay dividends compared to Red Bull over the full race distance.
“We need to prove now that we are strong from a racing point of view,” Stella told Sky Sports F1.
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Highlights from the Sprint Race at the United States Grand Prix.
“We look forward to having some racing tomorrow, because it was definitely very disappointing not being part of the Sprint.
“Like I said before the Sprint, if we can have some racing, I think we can take advantage of the strengths of the car, especially in hot conditions and when we have tyre degradation.
“We look forward to tomorrow, that’s our objective, and we have to stay focused.”
Piastri: This weekend is far from over
Staying focused is now clearly a key requirement for Piastri’s weekend, after the championship-leading driver followed up McLaren’s Sprint wipe-out – caused after he collided with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg to set off a chain reaction – with his second-worst qualifying result of the season.
Piastri, who has not beaten either Norris or Verstappen in a race since winning the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August and had already qualified behind both on Friday, admits he “struggled” throughout Saturday’s session.
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Mclarens show inconsistent performance as Lando Norris secures front row with Oscar Piastri only managing P6 after US GP qualifying.
However, the Australian is far from writing his weekend off yet from the third row.
“Obviously, when you don’t have the pace you want, it’s never the nicest feeling,” said Piastri.
“But there’s a lot of opportunities tomorrow, there’s strategy things, hopefully our race pace will be good, it’s a track you can overtake on, so we’ll see what we can do.
“The weekend is far from over.”
Will Red Bull tweaks prove ‘good enough’ for Verstappen?
McLaren’s travails continue to prove good news for Verstappen and Red Bull as their once-unlikely championship comeback threatens to gather even more momentum from the head of the grid on Sunday.
Verstappen himself, though, cautioned after winning the Sprint that Red Bull “need to be a bit better in race trim to be able to fight the McLarens” as “we haven’t seen anything of them”.
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Max Verstappen felt a ‘strong’ Red Bull team performance helped him to pole in Austin.
Like all teams, Red Bull will have been able to change their car’s set-up between the end of the Sprint and main qualifying in a bid to dial in a more optimum balance for the challenges of the Grand Prix.
“I hope it’s better for tomorrow. It’s difficult to say what will happen,” said Verstappen.
“I felt a bit happier with the car compared to yesterday’s qualifying, so I hope that’s enough for the race.”
Sky Sports F1’s live United States GP schedule
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Look back at some of the most dramatic moments to have taken place at the United States Grand Prix
Sunday October 19
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up*
8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction
11pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is in North America for the United States Grand Prix in Austin, live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event with Sunday’s race at 8pm (build-up from 6.30pm). Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
