Norris cleared of Sprint penalty, but Ferrari’s COTA pace ‘worrying’

Lando Norris avoided a penalty after the Sprint but says the performance potential that Ferrari has at the United States Grand Prix is “worrying.”

The McLaren driver is trying to close the gap to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship but had to settle for third place behind race-winner Verstappen and Carlos Sainz on Saturday. Both Ferraris nearly got past Norris and he admits the performance seen on Friday has translated so far into race pace that is likely to be tough to beat.

“It was still a tough race,” Norris said. “The start was obviously good, and it gave me quite a bit of hope at the beginning of achieving something strong, but just not the pace today. The whole weekend actually we’ve been quite a long way off.

“I don’t think we were shocking compared to Max, but the Ferraris were just another level. They were quick yesterday; they both just didn’t get the most out of their quali laps, but their potential was worrying.

“So I was a bit like, ‘Maybe that’s just quali and [in] the race they will be a bit further off,’ but they were just as quick today. Qualifying we have things to work on, and the race we clearly have a lot more to work on. Not bad, but we’re not quickest, and we’re not quick enough.”

Norris was under investigation for allegedly driving erratically late in the Sprint, both as he lost a position to Sainz and then as he defended from Charles Leclerc, but the stewards opted to take no further action.

“There did not appear to be any significant changes of direction under braking, and the move at Turn 15 was a legitimate defending move by the driver of Car No. 4,” the stewards’ decision read. “In Turn 1, Car No. 4 locked up under braking and went wide, losing a position.”

Leclerc acknowledged both the incident and Ferrari’s performance after the Sprint, believing the team can look to mount a more serious challenge for victory on Sunday.

“I think our race pace was really strong today,” Leclerc said. “We had quite a lot of fighting, which is part of racing in a Sprint race, so it was a very high-adrenaline Sprint race. My approach of trying to save a little bit more in the first five or six laps didn’t pay off, and that was it.

“At the end [I started to push]. We were very fast, but then there was a DRS train in front with Carlos having the DRS of Lando, and a close call on the last lap with Lando, so all-in-all P4 is the way it is. It’s a Sprint race and we’ve learned a lot for tomorrow.”