San Francisco Frontiers - Norris 'punching himself' for missing chance after Piastri crash

Piastri, the series leader, had crashed in Q3 to drop out of the fight for pole position, leaving Norris with a great chance to start at the front of the grid in a bid to trim the Australian's 31-point lead in the drivers' title race.

But on a weekend when McLaren could clinch their second consecutive constructors' championship with a record seven races remaining, Norris admitted that he had missed a trick by qualifying only seventh, two places ahead of Piastri.

His decision to lead the field out of the pits when Q3 re-started for the final laps had backfired.

"Of course, I'd have liked a better result in this kind of scenario, but we just made the wrong decision, which we'll punch ourselves about now," he said.

"But it could easily have gone our way," he added. "Sometimes, you risk it, sometimes you don't. It's also a risk to go out last and hope the track is a bit better, but also risk the yellow and the red flags.

"You win some, you lose some. So, I'm not the happiest about today, but there's a long race tomorrow to try and get some more points."

Norris had hoped that going early in the wet conditions might give him an advantage, but instead the track dried and conditions improved to give those who followed him later a chance to clock better lap times.

As a result of that, four-time world champion Max Verstappen claimed pole position for Red Bull in the final seconds.

Piastri, who was one of seven drivers to crash in a session of six red flags, blamed that on breaking too late.

"I've not seen any data or anything but it's normally what happens when you end up locking a brake, it's a bit late," he said. "It's disappointing, obviously, I thought the car was in a good place, but maybe I just tried a little bit too much."

Piastri had not started a race outside the first four places on the grid previously this season.

F.Edwards--SFF