Lando Norris makes 'pretty insane' assessment as McLaren suffer disappointment

Lando Norris has assessed that it would have taken a "pretty insane" lap to qualify higher on the Austrian Grand Prix grid, with McLaren left disappointed by its starting positions.

The Woking-based outfit was viewed as a threat for pole at the Red Bull Ring going into qualifying but fell comfortably short in the final part of the session.

Norris could only salvage sixth on the grid and was four-tenths slower than polesitter George Russell, while Oscar Piastri was a further place back in seventh.

It left McLaren fourth in the pecking order at the Austrian Grand Prix despite having looked stronger than both Ferrari and Red Bull throughout practice.

McLaren had entered qualifying expecting a better result, but its car, in its current configuration, continues to hold Norris and Piastri back.

The reigning world champion insisted that his best lap had felt strong, but that it relied on some of the frontrunners having a poor qualifying session. Even though Max Verstappen crashed, he still qualified ahead of both McLarens.

"I feel like everyone was probably expecting more, even us," Norris told select media, including RacingNews365. "We were probably expecting a little bit more, just from a position point of view.

"But you saw just how close it was. I think my lap felt pretty good. Similar to what Oscar said, it takes a pretty insane lap on a day like today to maybe get you a couple more positions, but they don't come around very often, and it's tricky to get that out of the car we have at the minute.

"So I think we're happy to be, again, as close as we were to some of them. You just hope that some of them don't do a perfect lap and make a couple of mistakes. That just wasn't the case today.

"So we are just where we deserve to be."