The big surprise of today’s qualifying is certainly Lando Norris, third on the starting grid thanks to a Saturday as a protagonist. The surprise is probably more in the position, an aspect where the problems accused by Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Charles undoubtedly helped, but not in the performance itself, because in reality some interesting details had already emerged on Friday.
In the second free practice session, the Briton hadn’t set an exciting time, but behind that time there was still a lot to give, because he had arrived on a set of tires that already had a lap behind him. In fact, in the first attempt, in which he had scored excellent splits, the Briton made a mistake between turns 11 and 12 following the loss of the rear. However, putting together his best partials it was clear that the MCL60 could have the potential to still get a good result.
Still, Norris had explained that it had been one of the worst Fridays of the season: “I would say yes, after FP1 we said it was probably one of our worst FP1s of the season in terms of pace. So, to be sitting here today, I think it’s a big surprise for all of us,” explained the Englishman.
Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, Poleman Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“I think with the cooler conditions things started to turn around. So yeah, it’s a bit of a strange feeling, I definitely didn’t think I’d be in the top three today, but I’m very happy to be here, so have a good day,” added the McLaren driver, with Zak Brown saying in interviews later confirmed that the drop in temperatures actually helped the MCL60.
Compared to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, only a few cents were missing, among other things despite a car that particularly suffered from top speeds, also due to the particularly loaded set-up, so much so that it was detached by a good 12 km/h from the SF- 23 of the Spanish.
“I’m shocked to be here. We haven’t done anything to the car this weekend, the last update we did was in Baku with the floor and even that didn’t give us much performance, just a different direction to go. Not we made big things, but only small things that obviously helped us a bit”.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“The midfield seemed very compact this weekend, starting from FP1. Everyone, the Haas, the Alpines, the Astons and then us, I think we’re a bit surprised today. I’m happy, but in reality we haven’t changed anything this weekend, it’s the same car we struggled with, so we were able to score some good points.”
Norris isn’t particularly confident in view of the race pace, but the heavily charged set-up and the lower temperatures could help: “Tomorrow the situation could change, Red Bull usually improves from Saturday to Sunday, the Astons are very fast in terms of race pace. It’s not our strongest area, but we hope to be able to surprise tomorrow as well as today”.
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