Championship leader Lando Norris said he couldn’t have got much more out of his McLaren after qualifying second on the grid behind Max Verstappen.

Norris will start the final race of the season from second on the grid after narrowly out-qualifying his other championship rival, team mate Oscar Piastri. He said he was pleased with his final laps in qualifying after making a scruffy start to the session.

“I think Q1 and Q2 were not the smoothest,” said Norris. “My Q3 laps I was pretty happy with, honestly.

“So I felt pretty good. I felt like I got a lot out of the car today but it just wasn’t enough, so of course I’m disappointed because you just want to be on pole for the final race of the year.”

Verstappen set two lap times which were quick enough for pole position in Q3. “We just didn’t have the pace today,” said Norris.

“I felt like I got the maximum out of the car and I have to be happy with that. But of course I’m behind the one person I want to be ahead of, that’s the only reason for the disappointment. But otherwise I was pretty happy with my laps and it was the maximum we could do.”

Piastri, who lost second place to his team mate by less than three-hundredths of a second, also felt there was little more performance in the McLaren.

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“Overall I’m pretty happy,” he said. “I felt like Q1 was the first lap that was actually good for the weekend, which was nice to have at the right time.

“Then I think the laps in Q3 were pretty good as well. The tiny little margins that you always have on a qualifying lap were probably there, but I didn’t have an answer for Max’s pace today.

“So ultimately I’m pretty happy. I would have loved a bit more, but we didn’t have it.”

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