McLaren seventh and eighth in Austin qualifying after Norris’s Q3 lap deletion

Lando Norris appeared to move into sixth in Saturday’s United States Grand Prix qualifying, but a track-limits infringement at the penultimate corner erased his final Q3 lap. Oscar Piastri qualified seventh and Norris eighth at the Circuit of The Americas; Norris was one of three drivers to have a final-run lap deleted.

McLaren said changing track conditions and strong winds made consistency difficult. Earlier in the session, Norris topped Q1 and was fifth in Q2; Piastri climbed from 12th in Q1 to sixth in Q2.

Norris said he had not put his lap together and that the wind made the car particularly difficult to drive in the corners. Piastri described the weekend as difficult: he said the MCL40 had speed in its package but remained hard to drive, and that McLaren had yet to unlock that speed.

Team principal Andrea Stella called the result fair, putting McLaren’s competitive level around third or fourth among its direct rivals, with tight gaps. He said the qualifying positions could have been better without Norris’s deleted lap and the difficulties completing both Q3 runs; the MCL40 was also difficult to extract, leaving the drivers little margin for error, he added.

For Sunday’s race, Stella said tyre degradation and the range of possible strategies could create openings. McLaren’s aim, he said, is to manage the race well, gain places and put itself in contention for a podium.