Lando Norris labelled his sprint qualifying lap as “shocking” after claiming fourth on the grid for Saturday’s United States Grand Prix sprint race, 0.25 seconds shy of Max Verstappen’s pole time.

Norris split the two Ferraris with his sole flying lap of the session, as neither Charles Leclerc nor Carlos Sainz could capitalise on the early pace that they had shown.

The Briton had gone fourth and sixth fastest through SQ1 and SQ2, on both occasions over two tenths slower than the fastest time in each phase. Norris was again over two tenths away from making the front row in SQ3, and just 0.006s ahead of Sainz in the overall pecking order.

On the radio after the lap, a downbeat Norris told his team that he didn’t want updates on where his rivals landed in the timing order, exclaiming that his lap was “shit”.

Speaking after the session, Norris conceded: “[It was] not very good. P4, so not a great day. I’ve been struggling the whole day, honestly, with the balance and the set-up,” Norris said.

“In a way I’m happy with P4 because I felt like it could have been a lot worse, but my lap was shocking. Not a terrible day and it could have been worse, but could have been better. But I’ll take it.

Norris felt that the upgrades McLaren had brought to Austin, which ranged from the front wing and suspension to minor changes around the rear of the car, were “pretty much the same” as what McLaren had run with in recent races.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

He explained that he was unsure of where the McLaren stacked up in race pace with the other cars, but hoped that there was more in the car that would allow him to attack the cars ahead of him on the grid.

Asked if he had a sense of where the race pace was, he replied: “Not really. I hope to go forward, that’s my plan.

“But on pace, I think we are where we deserve to be today, so, my plan is to go forward, but I have no idea how much we can.”