“It will be a close race”, McLaren says of the US GP

McLaren had a good result on Saturday, but perhaps not what they had hoped for. Lando Norris, who started the sprint race from 4th place, finished 3rd and Oscar Piastre, who dropped from 16th place, finished 10th.

In qualifying, Norris took pole position and Piastre again had a challenging session, only managing 5th place in the race. Watch the reactions of the drivers and the team after the session.

Lando Norris:

“It was a fantastic comeback. I couldn’t go faster than I did. You know when you do a lap, you think it’s going to be hard to get past this. I put everything on the line and that’s what we had to do. Most of the weekend we were at a disadvantage. Like the Ferraris or the Red Bulls. We didn’t have the pace. So I had to do a special lap, which I did. Overall it was a great lap and a great place to start the race tomorrow.

Oscar Piastre:

“It was a tough classification. I didn’t feel comfortable during the whole session, so maybe we got out of the car as much as possible in Gwalior. Obviously it’s not the best, but it’s still a good place to start the race. We’ll work hard overnight and see what we can do tomorrow.

Andrea Stella:

“We had a strong qualifying session in Kota, with Lando and Oscar doing great laps, easily passing Q1 and Q2 and securing P1 and P5 on the grid. These are good starting positions to bring important points tomorrow.

“We made some changes to the car in the afternoon based on what we learned in the sprint. Lando maximized the car’s performance, while at the same time having the potential we’ll explore tomorrow in the Oscar race. Tomorrow there is work to be done to understand tire management overnight. It will be a close and interesting race, with little difference between us, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.