Sprint dominated, then a step back
Saturday papaya-colored in Miami was definitely full of emotions: first came the double win in the Sprint, with Norris first and Piastri second, which inevitably brought McLaren fans back to the glories of the last two years; but then the qualifying, held in the Italian evening, gave a completely different result. Norris, who had taken pole in the Sprint qualifying, did not go beyond fourth position and Piastri even finished seventh in Q3.
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“For us it was a day of ups and downs – Norris admitted in end-of-day interviews – this morning we had a good Sprint. On Friday we managed to get the most out of the car when others did not, and this morning, in clean air conditions, we managed to control the race with some ease. This afternoon, however, our rivals simply showed their capabilities, while we struggled more with the car in higher temperature and stronger wind conditions. However, fourth place is not a bad result and is definitely a step forward compared to previous races – acknowledged the reigning champion – and the team still did a good job to achieve this result. We need to analyze the data to fully understand where we lost ground compared to our competitors. We will see what the weather holds for us tomorrow, it looks like it will be a wet race, which will be interesting since we have never driven these cars in the wet. We will prepare tonight and make sure to be as ready as possible for the Grand Prix”.
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Piastri only in fourth row
Even more complicated was the afternoon for Piastri, who will start the race from the fourth row and complained – between the lines – about some problems with the Mercedes power unit: “In qualifying the variable wind, high temperatures, variable track grip and some unexpected behaviors of the power unit meant that some things did not work as expected, especially in Q3, so there is a lot to analyze. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull seem to have made a step forward since the Sprint, with lap times much closer than we expected. Looking at the race, the weather forecast makes things incredibly interesting, we will work as much as possible overnight and see what can be done in the race”, concluded the Australian.
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