Zak Brown more wary of Mercedes than Verstappen in United States

Zak Brown sees Mercedes as the big favourite to win the sprint race. However, the McLaren CEO does not want to call it a dominant car, as anyone can win according to the American.

"It's been a bit of a challenging Friday for us," Zak Brown told Sky Sports ahead of the sprint race in Austin. "Oscar [Piastri] lost his time. Lando [Norris], I didn't think, optimised his lap. I think Mercedes are the fastest actually."

Zak Brown saw 'his' drivers get no further than P4 and P16. Oscar Piastri already dropped out in SQ1. Norris wasn't able to challenge Verstappen's best time.

"We only had the one hour and then obviously the qualifying. The upgrades now, we're in the increments, the milliseconds, not even the tenths, so the data's been good, but we weren't expecting some giant leap forward," Brown concluded.