Norris admits McLaren ‘hoped for a bit more’ in Austria Qualifying as he shares expectations for race day

Lando Norris has conceded that McLaren had “hoped for a little bit more” in Qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix, with the Briton and team mate Oscar Piastri having to settle for P6 and P7 respectively behind several of their rivals.

While Norris faced a tough start to the weekend in first practice – where his running was limited due to a hydraulic leak on his car – there were more promising signs to come for the papaya squad, Piastri and Norris ending Free Practice 2 in second and third on the timesheets.

They went on to place fourth and fifth in Saturday’s final practice hour, but dropped back further when it came to Qualifying as the Mercedes and Ferrari cars – plus the Red Bull of Max Verstappen – recorded quicker times in Q3.

Reflecting back on how the session had gone, Norris explained: “I think it was okay, honestly. I thought we still did a good job – I thought my final lap was decent, maybe lost a little bit in the final sector, but otherwise I think it’s good.

“I think we maybe hoped for a little bit more – it was very close to some of the cars ahead, but there’s no reason why we should be ahead of some of the cars ahead. I think we’re happy with it, it just seems a bit further down the order than what we would have liked and where we’ve looked in FP3, FP2, FP1.

“But I think it’s more just the others are always saving more for Qualifying and this is realistically where we are.”

Pushed on whether he could still be in a good position to fight for a podium on Sunday, the reigning World Champion – who took victory at the Red Bull Ring in 2025 – answered: “We’ll see. It’s a long race, it’s going to be hot so hopefully it favours us.

“We’re not as good as we used to be with the temperatures and controlling them, and that’s an area we really need to work on. But we’re close enough for battles ahead, for things to happen ahead for us to try and take advantage of.

“It’s normally a fun race at least, and a lot can be done with strategy tomorrow so we’ll be optimistic.”

On the other side of the garage, Piastri acknowledged that there was some disappointment at dropping back to seventh – having placed as high as fourth following the first runs of Q3 – but went on to echo Norris’ view that the result perhaps reflects where the team are currently at.

“We’ve obviously been very tightly matched, me and Lando, the whole weekend,” the Australian said.

“I think my last lap wasn’t… there are a few areas where I was pushing hard and maybe overstepped it a little bit, but I don’t think we had the pace to be able to do a whole lot more than that. It’s where we are at the moment – we know it, but we’re pushing hard to try and improve.”

Like Norris, Piastri is also staying optimistic about the possibility of battling for a top-three finish on Sunday in Austria.

“I hope so,” he answered when asked about fighting for a rostrum. “I think potentially we can. I think the pace of everyone at the front probably will be quite close, so we’ll have to wait and see what pans out tomorrow.”