Norris to start eighth after deleted McLaren qualifying lap

Lando Norris will start eighth in the United States Grand Prix after a track-limits violation erased his final qualifying lap, while McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri qualified seventh. Norris said McLaren had the pace to challenge near the front but that the car was exceptionally difficult to drive and he had not delivered the performance he wanted. Norris’s last Q3 attempt had provisionally moved him up to sixth. Stewards deleted the lap after he exceeded track limits at Turn 19, leaving him eighth on the strength of his earlier time. He said the car’s underlying pace was good enough for second place, but described his own qualifying performance as poor. The result put both McLaren drivers on the fourth row for Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas. Norris said the car felt better than it had earlier in the weekend, yet remained difficult to handle. He also cautioned that making progress from eighth could be challenging, saying he did not know how easy overtaking would be. Piastri said he had not been as competitive as he wanted and that the car had been difficult to drive. He qualified one place ahead of Norris but said the team had not found the pace it expected....