Lando Norris not surprised to qualify behind Max Verstappen

Lando Norris says he was not surprised to be beaten to pole position for the United States Grand Prix sprint race by Max Verstappen.

Norris had topped SQ1 and SQ2 but Red Bull’s Verstappen, with the very last lap of the session, usurped the McLaren driver by 0.071 seconds to take pole for the sprint race in Austin.

The Briton was at least able to outqualify McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri, who leads the championship by 22 points with six races remaining.

"Of course would have loved to be on pole, but not a surprise for us to be just a bit slower than the Red Bull lately, so still pretty happy,” Norris said.

"I don't know how much I was off by, but a little couple of things probably here and there I could have improved on, and just caught a few bumps a little bit wrong, but that's just the difficulty of this track. Otherwise all happy.”

Assessing McLaren’s chances in the sprint race, Norris added: “Normally our race pace is a bit better.

"We have struggled the whole year with our qualy pace, especially when it's close and it's been close today. So that's why I would say not a surprise but we have more hopes for the race we can get back ahead.”

Piastri ‘fortunate to be third’ after ‘scruffy’ lap

Piastri took third but was nearly four-tenths off the pace of Verstappen, and three tenths adrift of his teammate.

“A pretty scruffy lap, to be honest,” Piastri admitted. "Just didn't really get it together so in some ways feel a bit fortunate to be third.

"But the pace in the car is good and it's nothing major. It's not like it's been a disastrous day at all, it's just been a little bit of a messy lap that I can hopefully tidy up tomorrow.

"See what happens at the start [in the Sprint], if I can get a good launch then try to put myself in the right spot.

"Knowing where the right spot is into Turn One here is often tricky, so see what happens up ahead.”

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes Red Bull have now confirmed they can fight for wins everywhere.

"It confirms that Red Bull have definitely improved their car,” he told Sky Sports F1. “They are competitive now and can fight for victories and pole position at every kind of circuit. It’s also positive to see that our car here is competitive compared to some other venues in which we struggled a little bit.

"It’s a good result, not the result we wanted, we are here for pole positions. But I think it’s a good foundation for the Sprint race tomorrow, and also a good foundation to see where we can fine tune a little bit of performance and give it another go at the pole position tomorrow.

"Normally our car is decent when there is tyre degradation, so for many reasons, including this one, we look forward to the Sprint race."