2024 United States Grand Prix – Sprint and GP Qualifying Report “I put everything on the line"

Circuit of the Americas, Saturday, 19 October

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, as well as Team Principal Andrea Stella, after the F1 Sprint and Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix.

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Started 4th  
Finished 3rd  
Fastest lap 1m38.045s, Lap 17 (+0.582s, 5th)  
Q1 1m33.616s (Soft) 10th
Q2 1m32.851s (Soft) 3rd
Q3 1m32.330s (Soft) 1st

“It was a beautiful lap. I wasn't going to go much quicker than I did. You know when you do a lap and think, it's going to be tough to beat that. I put everything on the line, it's what we needed to do. We've been on the back foot for much of the weekend. We've not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls. So, I had to put in a special lap, and I did that. Overall, a cool lap and a nice place to start the race tomorrow.”

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Started 16th  
Finished 10th  
Fastest lap 1m37.567s, Lap 19 (+0.104s, 3rd)  
Q1 1m33.864s (Soft) 12th
Q2 1m33.057s (Soft) 6th
Q3 1m32.950s (Soft) 5th

"It’s been a tricky Qualifying. I felt uncomfortable the whole session, so we probably got the most out of Quali. Obviously not ideal, but still an OK place to race from. We’ll work hard overnight and see what we can do tomorrow."

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The Austin collection

Andrea Stella

"We’ve had a strong Qualifying session at COTA, with Lando and Oscar delivering good laps, going comfortably through Q1 and Q2, and then securing P1 and P5 on the grid. Those are good starting positions from which to bring home some important points tomorrow.

“We made some adjustments to the car this afternoon, based on what we learned in the Sprint. Lando maximised the performance of the car, while Oscar has some potential that we aim to realise tomorrow in the race. We’ve got work to do overnight, understanding tyre management for tomorrow. It’s going to be a tight, interesting race, in which there will be very little between ourselves, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.”