Lando Norris delivered ominous verdict on Las Vegas track before huge crash this weekend

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McLaren driver Lando Norris gave a very ominous verdict on the Las Vegas track before having a huge crash on the fourth lap of the race.

Norris was speaking to Martin Brundle on the grid on Sky Sports F1 just before the American national anthem.

It’s been a season of two halves for Lando Norris and the McLaren team.

After finishing 17^th and having one car retire in Bahrain, it’s hard to believe that the team have achieved nine podiums this year.

Austria has always been a happy hunting ground for Lando Norris and people weren’t sure if his fourth place that day was a fluke or a significant change.

The incredible pace the team have had since then shows that they made a huge breakthrough in their development and they’ve surged up the championship standings ever since.

However, Las Vegas turned out to be a really tough track for Norris and Piastri after they both went out in the first part of qualifying.

The young Australian showed in the race that Saturday was just a one-off and that McLaren did have plenty of pace on the streets of Nevada.

Unfortunately, Norris didn’t last long enough in the race to take advantage of that.

Norris gave ominous verdict on Las Vegas track before crash

Before the national anthem, Brundle briefly caught up with Norris and asked him: “Lando, how was it going around to the grid? How did the track feel?”

Norris replied: “Pretty dreadful! Just because it’s the least tyre temp we’ve had all weekend.

“Just because you’re pushing on an out lap, you don’t normally push on an out lap, so yeah, it didn’t feel great.

“It should come back towards us, the track should improve a lot through the race and it’s a lot more windy, and I’m at the back of the grid, so a lot of stuff going against us.”

For Norris to call the Las Vegas track ‘pretty dreadful’ before his crash suggests he wasn’t fully confident in his car’s performance before the start.

Both he and Piastri made up places after a chaotic first corner but Norris only took the corner three more times before losing control on the straight before turn 12.

He nearly took out his teammate as he careened along the barrier before a nasty collision with the barrier that saw him go to hospital.

Thankfully, he was discharged and should be fine to compete in Abu Dhabi at the weekend.

Norris will want to end the season on a high and is only five points behind Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz in the Drivers’ Championship.

It would be a fantastic achievement considering where he started the season to finish fourth overall in 2023.