'Hard to drive': McLaren only seventh and eighth – Williams at the back
McLaren endured a difficult qualifying in Austin: Piastri was almost eight tenths off and Norris lost a lap. Williams fared even worse, with Sainz and Albon 19th and 20th.
Archive image · Photo: Martin Lee from London, UK / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix was a disappointment for McLaren. Oscar Piastri was seventh, almost eight tenths of a second behind pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli, with Lando Norris eighth. According to Formula1.com, the Briton had a Q3 lap deleted for exceeding track limits; he had been fifth in Q2, The Race reported. "The car has the potential to be quick, it's just been hard to drive and we haven't had the pace," Piastri said. Norris said the car had the pace to be further up the order, "but I didn't put the lap together."
Team principal Andrea Stella offered a sober assessment: "Overall, though, I think the result is fair," he said, according to GrandPrix.com. In the championship, Norris (201 points) and Piastri (138) are sixth and seventh.
Williams struggled even more: Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were only 19th and 20th. According to The Race, it was Sainz's worst qualifying result in Austin since his rookie season. "It's been a tough weekend and probably more difficult than we expected," the Spaniard said. Only the Cadillac drivers Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas were slower.