Champion Lando Norris: Not frustrated despite narrowly missing out on sprint pole

Lando Norris will start the fifth of six mini-races to be held this Formula 1 season from the front row of the grid. The world champion completed the 4.259 km circuit in 1:11.608, putting in a strong performance. However, he had to concede pole position to George Russell. The Mercedes star was 41 thousandths of a second faster around the circuit.

“How close was I, then?” the McLaren star asked at first. When he heard the figure, he remarked dryly: “Ah, right. I was still a bit short, then.” And he explained: “I’m still pretty satisfied, though, because it’s still a good starting position. It was a decent lap and, given how close everyone was in terms of performance, it could easily have gone either way. I could have finished first or fourth or fifth.”

“It was a good qualifying session; the teams were very close to each other in terms of performance, and that’s exactly what we expected,” Norris then summarised, though he also admitted: “I was close, and of course there’s a certain disappointment that I didn’t finish in first place.”

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The twelve-time Grand Prix winner speculated: “I think I could have found a bit more grip on the soft tyres; then I could have pushed a bit closer to the limit.” And he consoled himself: “But apart from that, the car was performing quite well. We’ve managed to build on the strong performance from Budapest. So there are plenty of positives we can take away from this.”

“Now we just need to get the rest of the weekend right. There are a few things we can still improve ahead of the Grand Prix qualifying, but we’ve made a strong start to the weekend and I’m happy with that,” Norris continued, though he also noted, with regard to his chances of victory: “Of course, the plan is to battle with George for the lead. But it’s generally not easy to overtake an opponent on this track. And my side of the track is significantly worse than the outside line. So let’s just wait and see for now.”

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