Why McLaren felt the “real picture” was Miami GP qualifying and not its sprint pole and win

Lando Norris, McLaren

Lando Norris, McLaren

Piastri added: “I think everyone else maximised what they had a lot more. For us it was a big surprise to not see Mercedes be quick yesterday and this morning, and seeing Kimi on pole by that much is more what we expected. And I think even for Max and Charles, I think they probably just maximised a bit more of what they have - and that's a bit more of real picture.”

Norris, who took sprint pole with a 1m27.869s, could only manage a best lap time of 1m28.183s in grand prix qualifying, while Piastri saw a similar dip (1m28.108s in sprint qualifying versus 1m28.500s in grand prix qualifying).

The defending F1 world champion felt it was evidence of McLaren nailing its performance on Friday evening but a small dip coupled with improvements from its rivals culminated in its drop down the order.

“I don't think people gave us good credit for how good of a job we did yesterday comparing to the others, they were clearly quicker and that's why I was very, very happy with yesterday's performance and this morning's performance,” Norris explained.

“We maximised everything and I said yesterday already that it was close between the Mercedes.

“Mercedes around every corner was pretty much just as quick as or quicker than us and they just had some issues and clearly Max and the Red Bull was also very strong as well.

“So I'm not surprised, as a team we're surprised, probably surprised we struggled as much as we did today but I don't think in terms of order and pace of the Mercedes we're surprised at all.”

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