Verstappen

Lando Norris said McLaren were “already a little bit behind” after Friday practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri are under pressure from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after a strong run of races for the Dutchman – and the four-time champion topped Friday practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Verstappen, 40 points off championship leader Piastri after a run of three wins and a second place in the past four races, set the pace, leading Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.153 seconds.

Norris was fourth fastest, while Piastri, 14 points ahead of the Briton, was down in 12th.

Norris, one of nine drivers to miss the first session while handing his car over to a rookie, said: “We’re in a reasonable place, for sure.

“I got up to speed quite quickly, I was quite surprised. I found the limit quickly… but I found the limit quite quickly, which is just holding us back a bit.

“Not that it was a bad day, but normally we’re very good on a Friday and then everyone catches up on Saturday.

“We are already a little bit behind so we have definitely some work to do tonight. The balance is a bit all over the place, same as the last few weeks. Single-lap stuff we’re struggling a bit at the minute.”

However, although Verstappen was quickest overall, he was also dissatisfied with his day, saying he was struggling for pace on the race-simulation runs later in the session.

“The short run on the soft (tyre) we managed to do a good lap,” said Verstappen, who has a new floor fitted to his Red Bull as the team chase every last bit of performance. “The rest, everything else was pretty bad.

“On the medium [tyre], the short run was not great and the big problem was the long run, where we seemed to struggle a lot. That is a big concern for the race.

“The balance wasn’t even off. There was just no grip. That is the bigger concern. So, as soon as you go into a sustainable run, the tyres are going hot, we were nowhere, so that is a tough one to sort out, but we’ll see.”

When it was pointed out to him that his consolation was that single-lap pace should put him in a good position for qualifying, Verstappen shot back: “Yeah, but you are not going to win the race like that.

“You can be fast over one lap and if you have zero pace in the race then it is going to be very tough. I prefer to be fast in the race and not so fast over one lap.”

The McLaren drivers go into the final five races free to race with each other and with no internal team rules hanging over them – other than not to crash with one another.

Norris had been facing undefined “repercussions” after colliding with Piastri while taking third place from him at the first sequence of corners in Singapore.

Following the crash between the two at the start of the sprint at the US Grand Prix last weekend, these have now been removed.

“There is a degree of responsibility from my side in the sprint and we are starting this weekend within a clean slate for both of us, just going out and going racing,” said Piastri.

The Australian, who won at Zandvoort, has seen his lead erode after being beaten by Norris in each of the past four races, but he said he had also been surprised Verstappen had come into the equation so quicky.

“The run of form he’s had since Monza has been a bit of a surprise,” said Piastri.

“There were flashes earlier in the season but there were also some pretty big dips. We know they have been throwing a lot of things at their car trying to improve it but he has come to the fight quicker than I expected.”

However, when asked if he was concerned about Verstappen, Piastri said: “It’s not really something I think about. He has been consistent and strong the last few weekends but there is no benefit in worrying about or focusing on that.

“The thing that’s going to help me win the championship is get the most out of myself, the car, the team. He’s there, he’s in the fight but ultimately it doesn’t change how I go about my racing.”

Norris added: “Max has had very good form the last month or so. They have been performing better than we have.

“He has won a good amount of races and he’s Max Verstappen. You’d be silly if you didn’t want to give Max a chance.

“At the minute, they are in better form, a lot of races they have been quicker. But we still have chances. We have a better car from now until the end of the season and we just have to make use of that.”

Verstappen said: “It’s clear we had a good run, definitely been enjoying it a lot more like that and we will try to carry that momentum forward. We know we need to be perfect to the end to have a chance, but we just try to maximise everything and see where we end up.”

Verstappen’s wire-to-wire victory in Austin narrows the drivers’ championship gap to 40 points behind Oscar Piastri, with six races remaining.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated the US Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday, leading every lap to take another significant chunk out of Oscar Piastri’s Formula One championship lead on a perfect weekend in Texas.

McLaren’s Piastri finished fifth with his teammate and closest rival, Lando Norris, seconds after passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, last year’s winner, five laps from the chequered flag.

Piastri now leads Britain’s Norris by 14 points, with five rounds and two sprints remaining, while Verstappen has slashed his gap to the Australian to 40 after being 104 behind at the end of August.

Verstappen also won the Saturday sprint from pole position at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, while the McLarens collided and retired, on a weekend of maximum points for the four-time world champion.

McLaren has already sealed the constructors’ title.

Verstappen says the title chance is there

“For sure, the chance is there,” Verstappen said of the title battle. “We just need to try and deliver these weekends until the end.

“We will try whatever we can. It’s exciting,” he added after his third win in the last four races and 68th of his career.

Piastri said he still had full confidence in his ability to become Australia’s first champion since Alan Jones in 1980.

“I’d still rather be where I am than the other two,” added the 24-year-old.

Norris lost out to Leclerc at the start and then took 21 laps to find a way back past as the Monegasque, on the faster but less durable soft tyres, held a defensive masterclass.

Leclerc then battled with Lewis Hamilton, who started on mediums, before pitting on lap 23 and coming back out in ninth place, with his teammate moving up to third and Piastri to fourth.

Verstappen, by then, was 10 seconds down the road from his closest rival.

Once the rest of the frontrunners had made their pitstops, Leclerc was again second on the road – but more than six seconds behind Verstappen – with Norris third and having to overtake all over again with a track limits warning hanging over him.

Job done, Norris pulled away and finished 7.9 seconds behind Verstappen and 7.4 ahead of the Ferrari.

“It was tough. We did everything we could,” he said of a battle that gave the fans some excitement as Verstappen completed lap after lap largely absent from the global television feed.

“I expected a slightly easier second attempt to get through, but it wasn’t the case. Charles drove a very good race. It was good fun, good battles. So we have to take second. Not a lot more we could’ve done today.”

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said, however, that Norris could have fought for the win had he not been held up by the Ferrari.

Hamilton was fourth, with Piastri just 1.1 seconds behind, and George Russell – the winner last time out in Singapore – taking the chequered flag in sixth for Mercedes.

Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda finished seventh, ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Haas’s Oliver Bearman. Fernando Alonso took the final point for Aston Martin.

The virtual safety car was deployed on lap seven when Mercedes’ Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli and Williams’ Carlos Sainz collided, with the Spaniard retiring after trying to overtake on the inside for seventh place.

Stewards handed Sainz a five-place grid penalty at next weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, plus two penalty points, for causing the collision.

Sainz’s teammate Alex Albon had also been caught up in a first corner collision with Sauber’s Brazilian rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.

The weekend was declared a heat hazard, although the air temperature during the race was lower than feared at about 28.6 degrees Celsius (83.5 Fahrenheit).

Norris started alongside Verstappen on the front row, hoping McLaren’s usually strong race performance would allow him to challenge the Red Bull driver, who had won two of the past three races and beaten the McLarens in all of them.

But Norris’ hopes of the win evaporated quickly as Leclerc used the extra grip of the soft tyres – he was the only driver in the top 10 to pick them for the start, with everyone else on mediums – to catapult into second place at the first corner.

As Verstappen built his lead, through an early virtual safety car period caused by a collision between Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Norris tried in vain to pass Leclerc, with Hamilton in close attendance.

Several times Norris challenged Leclerc on the outside at Turn 12, at the end of the long back straight, but he was never close enough to really try for a pass.

As Verstappen built his lead, Leclerc held on until just before he stopped for fresh tyres on lap 22, fitting the medium compound.

Verstappen stopped a couple of laps later, never losing the lead and enjoying an untroubled win, his third in four races and fifth of the season, matching Norris’ tally.

Norris stayed out for a further 10 laps, dropping behind the Ferrari again when he stopped to fit the soft tyres.

The Briton emerged 2.4 seconds behind Leclerc and within four laps was on the Ferrari’s tail.

But again he could not pass and soon he was on the radio saying his tyres we’re gone.

Norris was advised by his race engineer Will Joseph to back off for a few laps to cool his tyres and try again.

Norris did so, and closed in with five laps to go. He challenged into Turn One, briefly getting past, only for Leclerc to cut back and reclaim the place.

But half a lap later, Norris went for the position again into Turn 12, dummying Leclerc and this time making the move stick.

By this stage, Hamilton had dropped back and took a lonely fourth place.

The crash and Verstappen’s subsequent sprint win cut the four-time champion’s deficit to Piastri to 55 points, while he is now 33 behind Norris.

The Australian led Verstappen by 104 points after the Dutch race on 31 August, so nearly half that advantage has been eroded in three grands prix and a sprint. There are still six races and two further sprints to come.

In the normal run of things, it seems inevitable that Piastri will lose more ground to Verstappen on Sunday in Texas. Norris has a chance to get ahead, but as he pointed out, the McLaren has not looked like a Verstappen-beating car at any point this weekend.

“It’s going to be difficult,” Norris said. “We were hoping to learn a lot in the sprint in terms of how the car set-up would be from qualifying to race and hopefully make tweaks but that didn’t go to plan so we are certainly on the back foot. But we won’t make it an excuse for tomorrow.

“It’s clear we were not going to be as quick as the Red Bull so we have to be happy with second. It’s not being distracted by the mess and nonsense that everyone creates.

“Saturdays have never been as good this year so I’m hoping we can turn it up tomorrow and be a little bit quicker.

“I have to be optimistic. Every lap we did today was 0.3-0.5secs off Max so to turn that around will be pretty difficult. I’m sure if Max had done his final lap he would have gone a good step quicker anyway.

“They have been quick in a lot of races recently. They have been doing a very good job and seemed to catch us up a little bit. It’s not a lot, just enough that they are more consistently ahead. And then you can get more opportunities and of course Max is good at making the most of them.”

Meanwhile, Stella admitted that McLaren were even more aware of just how potent Verstappen can be for the remainder of the season.

“I would have expected a smaller gap here, if anything, so we have to look at the facts, we have to look at the numbers,” he said. “Just objectively, not necessarily we maximised what the performance was available today in the car.

“But we need to be ready as a team and as drivers for Max and Red Bull being competitive and possibly the fastest car at every one of the remaining races.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat McLaren’s Lando Norris to pole position at the United States Grand Prix with championship leader Oscar Piastri down in sixth.

After the McLaren drivers crashed out of the sprint earlier on Saturday, neither was able to challenge Verstappen even though the world champion failed to complete a final run in qualifying.

Verstappen was sent out too late to get around in time to start a last lap before the chequered flag but still beat Norris by 0.291 seconds.

It was an imperious performance that underlined why McLaren are concerned about his threat in the drivers’ championship.

Norris saved his best for last in a difficult session to pip Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to second on the grid by just 0.006secs.

But Piastri, who has looked out of sorts all weekend, was not quick and he ended up 0.574secs off the pace, and behind Mercedes’ George Russell and the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton.

The crash was a gift for Verstappen, who McLaren have always insisted remained a threat in the championship despite his significant deficit, especially as Red Bull have returned to form in recent races.

The crash brought out the safety car for five laps and after the restart Verstappen was tracked by Russell, who made a bold move into Turn 12 on lap seven, a late dive that ended up with both going off the track.

Verstappen retained the position and soon began to edge away and took control of the race.

Sainz was no threat to Russell, but he had to watch his mirrors for Hamilton.

The seven-time champion passed team-mate Charles Leclerc on lap eight down the back straight after the Monegasque lost control of his car through the high-speed Esses earlier in the lap.

Leclerc had a snap through the Esses, cut one of the corners, and that allowed Hamilton to close up. He then passed down the straight as Leclerc edged him right to the edge of the track on the inside.

Leclerc tried to fight back through the series of slower corners through the stadium section but Hamilton held on.

Leclerc took fifth place, with Williams’ Alex Albon sixth and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda seventh.

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took the final point after a 10-second penalty for Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who was adjudged to have gained an advantage by leaving the track after the Italian tried a passing move into Turn 12 late in the race.

Bearman could not believe the penalty when told about it by his team during the race, obviously feeling Antonelli had forced him off track with his late move.

The race ended under another safety car after Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll T-boned Esteban Ocon’s Haas into the first corner, leaving his team with a massive repair job on both cars in the gap before grand prix qualifying at 22:00 BST.

Piastri had looked to be struggling compared with Norris since the start of practice and was a good chunk off the Briton in all three qualifying sessions.

Norris said: “Disappointed not to be on pole but not a surprise for us to be just a bit slower than the Red Bull lately.

“A little couple of bits here and there I could have improved on and caught a few bumps a little bit wrong, that’s the difficulty of this track. Otherwise, all happy.”

Piastri said: “A pretty scruffy lap. Just didn’t really get it together. In some ways, I feel a bit fortunate to be third. The pace in the car is good. It’s nothing major, just been a bit of a messy lap and hopefully I can tidy it up tomorrow.”

The sprint offers eight points for the winner down to one for eighth place.

The stand-out performance in qualifying came from Hulkenberg, the first time he has qualified in the top 10 all year, and the best Sauber performance of the season.

Their previous top grid position was seventh for team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto in Hungary at the start of August.

“Satisfied, happy, as you might imagine,” the German said. “P1 looked too good to be true. We weren’t sure if it was the real deal but we were able to continue that trend. Hopefully we can hang on to it this weekend.

“The pace was just there. The car seemed to be fast and in a good window, hit the sweet spot, I think that’s all.”