Norris shines, Piastri stumbles McLaren's qualifying contrast

Norris pleased, Piastri frustrated: McLaren’s mixed qualifying

26/10/2024

McLaren’s qualifying session delivered contrasting results, with Norris excelling and Piastri struggling after a critical mistake.

Lando Norris will start third on the grid for the Mexican Grand Prix following a solid qualifying session. The McLaren F1 driver is not complaining about this performance, especially considering the challenging weekend he’s had.

“It’s always hard to say, but I’m quite pleased. I think I struggled to extract more from the car during the final lap, while Carlos and Max got everything they could out of theirs. But I’m happy with this result,” Norris stated.

The Briton remains cautious about his race-winning chances: “It’s hard to predict; nobody has done long runs, so it’s an open question. But Ferrari has been very fast on longer stints lately, so it will be tough, but we’ll give it everything.”

Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, couldn’t overcome a mistake and a lack of pace in Q1, failing to progress beyond the first part of qualifying, which leaves him starting from the back of the grid this Sunday.

“I went off track at Turn 12, got stuck on the kerb, and that’s all there is to it—my session was ruined!” the Australian vented. “My lap could easily have been enough, so it’s incredibly frustrating to have made that mistake.”

“I lost about a second. It’s annoying. It’s a tricky circuit, but I don’t think today’s issue was due to the track being challenging; I just made a really big, silly mistake, and that’s that.”

Piastri is hoping to replicate Norris’s comeback from last year on the same circuit: “We’re in a similar position to where Lando was last year, so I’ll make sure to do my homework on how he moved through the field and try to do the same, I suppose.”

 Piastri frustrated McLaren's mixed qualifying

Norris shines – Piastri stumbles: McLaren’s qualifying contrast Norris shines – Piastri stumbles: McLaren’s qualifying contrast

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Full 2025 F1 testing results

Carlos Sainz
1
CARLOS
SAINZ
Leader
Lewis Hamilton
2
LEWIS
HAMILTON
+0.031s
Charles Leclerc
3
CHARLES
LECLERC
+0.083s
George Russell
4
GEORGE
RUSSELL
+0.197s
Max Verstappen
5
MAX
VERSTAPPEN
+0.218s
Alex Albon
6
ALEX
ALBON
+0.302s
Kimi Antonelli
7
KIMI
ANTONELLI
+0.436s
Oscar Piastri
8
OSCAR
PIASTRI
+0.592s
Pierre Gasly
9
PIERRE
GASLY
+0.692s
Lance Stroll
10
LANCE
STROLL
+0.881s
Liam Lawson
11
LIAM
LAWSON
+0.904s
Jack Doohan
12
JACK
DOOHAN
+1.020s
Yuki Tsunoda
13
YUKI
TSUNODA
+1.149s
Isack Hadjar
14
ISACK
HADJAR
+1.327s
Fernando Alonso
15
FERNANDO
ALONSO
+1.352s
Esteban Ocon
16
ESTEBAN
OCON
+1.380s
Lando Norris
17
LANDO
NORRIS
+1.534s
Gabriel Bortoleto
18
GABRIEL
BORTOLETO
+1.709s
Nico Hulkenberg
19
NICO
HULKENBERG
+2.109s
Oliver Bearman
20
OLIVER
BEARMAN
+3.013s

Testing Total Distance Covered by Team

1
Mercedes
458
2
Haas
457
3
Racing Bulls
454
4
Alpine
405
5
Williams
395
6
Ferrari
382
7
McLaren
381
8
Sauber
354
9
Aston Martin
306
10
Red Bull
304
Race Center
Australia Flag
Australian GP
13 Mar - 16 Mar
FP1
14 MAR 01:30
FP2
14 MAR 05:00
FP3
15 MAR 01:30
QU
15 MAR 05:00
RACE
16 MAR 04:00
F1 CALENDAR 2025
Race
Date
Australian Flag
Australian
Albert Park
16 Mar
Chinese Flag
Chinese
Shanghai International
23 Mar
Japanese Flag
Japanese
Suzuka Circuit
6 Apr
Bahrain Flag
Bahrain
Sakhir desert
13 Apr
Saudi Arabia Flag
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street
20 Apr
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