Lando Norris takes a jibe at recent questions about the legality of McLaren's 2024 F1 challenger

Lando Norris took a jibe at questions hurled at him during the post-qualifying session of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix. The McLaren driver referred to the cooling-trick allegations against his team and snubbed that they were "nonsense" after he had an underwhelming outing on Saturday.

The McLarens, who were the frontrunners for the better half of the season, had a disappointing qualifying. Norris managed to grab the third row with his P6, whereas his teammate, Oscar Piastri, ended up in the fourth row with P8.

Compared to them, Mercedes and Ferrari had better outings, which put McLaren on the back foot. After the qualifying was over, Norris was asked the reason behind McLaren's unimpressive qualifying, to which the British driver stated:

"It's not tyres, it's not 'cause they're too hot or too cold, or all this nonsense. Or the water. It's just our car doesn't suit these conditions."

Notably, Norris' jibe has come after a report from Auto Motor Und Sport claimed that the Papayas, with several other teams, has been benefiting from tire cooling tricks.

As per reports, teams add a small amount of water into the tires via valves, which helps to cool the tires. Following the allegations, the FIA said they were looking into it, while Pirelli stated that there were no irregularities.

George Russell claimed the Las Vegas GP pole, ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Alpine's Pierre Gasly. Championship leader Max Verstappen starts from P5.

McLaren leads the Constructors' Championship with 593 points, ahead of Ferrari, and Red Bull, who are in P2, and P3, respectively with 557 and 544 points.

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Lando Norris predicts a difficult race on Sunday

Following the conclusion of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying, Lando Norris touched upon his performance and predicted a tough outing on Sunday. He stated how they had been struggling throughout the weekend, running up to the qualifying. Here's what he said:

"Not a great Quali, in terms of position. We’ve been struggling all weekend; we’ve not had the pace of some of our competitors, and things didn’t come together in Qualifying. I’m happy with my performance in the end."

Lando Norris Oscar Piastri of McLaren F1 team at the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas - Source: Getty Images

"I feel I put in a reasonable lap. It was just too difficult to do a perfect lap. It’ll be difficult tomorrow, but it’s a long race, so we’ll see what we can do."

Lando Norris is trailing Max Verstappen by 62 points in the F1 Drivers' Championship. The McLaren driver has 331 points after 21 races, and five Sprints compared to Verstappen's 392 points. Charles Leclerc is in P3 with 307 points.