Lando Norris rues “shocking” lap in sprint qualifying | “Struggling the whole day”

Lando Norris admitted McLaren were “struggling” for pace as he settled for fourth in sprint qualifying at the United States Grand Prix.

After dominating the last race in Singapore, Norris was the heavy favourite heading into this weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas.

Norris was running the new McLaren upgrade package, with the new front wing only on his car.

However, Norris could only settle for fourth on the grid for the sprint race.

It was a poor day for the McLaren driver considering his main F1 title rival Max Verstappen clinched pole position.

Reflecting on sprint qualifying, Norris said on Friday: “[It was] not a great day.

“I’ve been struggling the whole day, honestly, with the balance and the setup.

“In a way, I’m happy with P4, because I felt like it could have been a lot worse, but my lap was shocking.

“So, yeah, not a terrible day, could have been worse, could have been better, but I’ll take it.”

Looking ahead to the sprint race, Norris outlined that his “plan” is to move forward.

“I mean, I hope to go forward,” he said.

“That’s my plan. But on pace, I think we are where we deserve to be today. So my plan is to go forward, but I have no idea how much we can.”

Ahead of the sprint race, Norris is 52 points behind Verstappen with six rounds to go.

Verstappen can afford to finish second in each of the remaining races to secure the title.

McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri only managed 16th after running wide on his final lap in SQ1 - which was deleted for track limits.