What made McLaren’s car ‘impossible to drive’ for Lando Norris

Lando Norris said his McLaren was “impossible to drive” in qualifying at the United States Grand Prix.

The Briton qualified second on the grid for Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen stormed to pole position after producing a lap 0.291 seconds faster than Norris.

Norris’s teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri struggled to sixth place in the other McLaren, with the championship leader ending up 0.574s off the pace.

Norris felt there was “no chance” he could have beaten the resurgent Verstappen to pole in Austin as he detailed the struggles which made his MCL39 a “handful to drive”.

“It felt like there were three seconds in the car today but it was just impossible to drive,” he said.

“I don’t know [why]. It was clear from Q1 already, 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.

“We weren’t even a mile away from getting knocked out. I was pretty worried after Q1 but it was just a handful to drive. Every bump, every kerb, lap-to-lap different - just a handful.

“Which is not the most common thing we say about our car but clear we were both struggling with it today quite a bit. I don’t know why we were struggling more than yesterday where I was a bit more comfortable.

“Lap-time wise we were a lot quicker yesterday so clearly the track is a bit worse. The wind was a bit worse and it seems to have impacted us a bit more than some others. We’ll try and understand why and learn from it.

“Almost a surprise to be P2, so I’ll take it!’

McLaren 'on the back foot' at US GP

McLaren go into Sunday’s grand prix somewhat in the dark after Norris and Piastri failed to complete a single lap in the sprint, having both been wiped out in a dramatic multi-car collision at Turn 1.

"I don't think I've done more than three laps in a row and not more than, like, 40 kilos of fuel. So, I have no idea," Norris admitted. 

"We don't know if it's going to be amazing or terrible, certainly around here because it's so difficult with the bumps and the bottoming and the winds. It's unpredictable. 

"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 that as an excuse tomorrow." 

But team principal Andrea Stella remains confident Norris and Piastri can have a stronger showing in race conditions.

“We need to prove now that we are strong from a racing point of view. We look forward to having some racing tomorrow, because it was definitely very disappointing not being part of the Sprint,” Stella told Sky Sports F1.

“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."