Lando Norris closed qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix in 1’04”718, a time which earned him second place on the starting grid behind Max Verstappen. The Dutchman, aboard his RB20, confirmed that he is the fastest of all, signing his eighth pole of the season with 404 thousandths less than the British driver.
Norris, contrary to what was said after the Sprint Race, said he was satisfied with the result obtained, probably the best that the papaya team could have done, especially given the more complex track conditions compared to the Sprint Qualifying.
“Max was in a category of his own, much faster than us. I’m happy: complicated conditions, much more at the limit so it was much more difficult to put the lap together perfectly.”
For this reason, however, the McLaren driver claims that his best lap in Saturday’s qualifying was not as good as the one he did on Friday in SQ3: “Yesterday I did a better lap, today I could have improved by one or two tenths if I had done a better lap, but definitely not enough to overtake Max.”
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Looking ahead to the race, on the one hand Norris says he is enthusiastic because he knows that McLaren has always shown itself to be stronger in the race than in qualifying, on the other hand he knows that beating the reigning world champion in the race tomorrow will not be easy.
“It’s tough, because if we look at today’s pace it’s clear that we’ll need something more to beat Max and Red Bull’s pace, I’ll try, I’ll try to do a better job than this morning, that’s for sure and I’m excited, I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
The other McLaren, that of Oscar Piastri, will instead start from seventh place, after the time set by the Australian on the last lap of Q3 was canceled due to track limits.
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