Lando Norris believes he can beat the Ferraris on race day in Austin, despite finishing second to them in qualifying.
Norris had a disappointing practice session at The Circuit of The Americas, finishing eighth behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo and both Ferrari drivers.
So far this weekend, the Italian team has appeared stronger than McLaren, and they are the favorites to finish first in the midfield.
Norris, on the other hand, is confident that he and Ricciardo can beat them, especially as Sainz will start on softs while he and Ricciardo will start on mediums.
“The aim is to be ahead of the Ferraris,” he said.
“That’s our aim. To be as high as possible. I think Red Bull and Mercedes are a bit too far ahead but we still have a good car, we can still score some good points and we have a chance to beat Ferrari.
“it’s going to be important at the start, the first lap, to try and get ahead… Carlos is on the softs as well so we have definitely some opportunities to try and get ahead of them tomorrow.”
In qualifying, neither Norris nor Ricciardo were able to get close to the lead Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who was over two tenths faster than both.
However, the Brit believes he had the pace to challenge his rivals’ time and would have done so if it hadn’t been for errors on his final flying lap.
“Ferrari were fast today so it would’ve needed a pretty much perfect lap to be ahead of them. They were basically ahead through the majority of qualifying,” he said.
“So they have a good package, and we got close. I made a couple of mistakes on my last lap, like sector one and sector two I think was good but just the last two corners, I over-pushed a little bit and overcooked [the tyres].
“I kind of did the opposite of what I should have done. I pushed more instead of under-driving which would have suited it a little bit more.
“So I probably lost a couple of tenths which sucks because I could have been those two positions higher, maybe ahead of Ferrari, I’m not sure what times they actually did.
“But I think it was close enough that if I didn’t make the mistake I could’ve been ahead.”
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