Lando Norris feels he was "screwed" by a sudden McLaren issue affecting his battery deployment in Miami Grand Prix qualifying.
After a dominant Sprint pole and victory, Norris headed into grand prix qualifying as the favourite to land pole, but a scrappy session from both driver and team meant he could only qualify in fourth place.
This is behind Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc, with team-mate Oscar Piastri faring even worse down in seventh.
Recalling just what had gone wrong on Saturday afternoon, the reigning champion pinpointed a moment in Q3 where he felt he was "screwed" as he also detailed how outside factors had derailed McLaren.
"We certainly had more issues with deployment and things like that, and I started my final lap with just less deployment," Norris told media, including RacingNews365.
"For some reason, it just didn't go to the full pack, so I was screwed from the off.
"It is definitely not as clean a run from ourselves, and we need to understand why, but I think the temperature is a little bit hotter, and the wind was a little bit different, the tarmac is being rubbered in a lot more by all the categories and Porsches and certain lines I could do [on Friday], I couldn't do on [Saturday].
"It is a lot of little things, it is not like we're miles off, we still think it is two-tenths [to Mercedes], so it is not like it is night and day, it is more that the others improved and maybe we struggled a bit more.
"I think we still did a good job, I think the others just did a really bad job [in Sprint Qualifying], and did the job they should have done [in grand prix qualifying], so not too many complaints.
"It was certainly a bit trickier with the car, with the wind and the temperatures, and I struggled a bit more, but not because we changed anything, it's just that the conditions were a little bit different and the others did the job they were supposed to, and we are where we deserve to be, to be honest."
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