Lando Norris makes bold statement about better-than-expected McLaren

Lando Norris believes McLaren are in the fight for pole position in qualifying at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The F1 world championship leader set the pace in a disrupted and curtailed second practice in Sin City as he ended up 0.029 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, while Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari after topping the opening session.

McLaren were expected to struggle in Las Vegas after a difficult race  in 2024 but have encouragingly bounced back from a tricky start to the first day of action.

And Norris is convinced McLaren are in a better place with their car compared to last year’s event.

"It's always tricky here. I think we have a better feeling in the car than last year. That was felt already on lap one,” Norris said.

"Some good feelings. Not a lot of running in the end, not really any high fuel running, but the pace clearly is there.

"It's pretty tight between a lot of people and many people didn't get their laps in. We made some steps forward from FP1 to FP2 and hopefully we can do some more from FP3 to qualifying.”

Asked what his expectations are for the rest of the weekend, Norris confidently asserted: "We are fighting for pole.”

Oscar Piastri on the back foot?

Norris’s teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri was only 14th and 0.891 seconds off Norris, though he was not able to set a representative lap on the soft tyre due to a pair of late red flags.

However, Piastri was slower than Norris in both sessions, continuing a recent trend of late. 

The Australian is 24 points behind Norris with three races remaining this season.

“FP1 was pretty good, just things to work on. Overall I felt like it was a pretty good session,” Piastri said.

"FP2 I did two laps, so it's difficult to know exactly where we sit.

"The car has got decent pace but not that many people had a run on the softs. Plenty of positives and things to look through though.”

Asked whether he feels McLaren are in a better spot compared to 12 months ago in Las Vegas, Piastri replied: "I think so yes. Again, it's difficult to know. We changed a few things into FP2, which seemed to feel pretty good.

“Would I have loved some more laps? Yes. But, the track will continue to change quite a bit for the rest of the weekend. We will see what weather we have and take it from there."