Formula 1 World Champion Lando Norris: Fourth-strongest team despite second place?

For Lando Norris, the 2026 season has so far rarely gone to plan. The 2025 champion has secured just two Grand Prix podium finishes in the first nine rounds of the World Championship: In Miami, he finished second on race day – having won the first sprint of the year – and at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya he crossed the line in third place. He has yet to secure a Grand Prix victory.

However, the Briton showed good pace at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. At the end of the day, he was the second-fastest behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who set the day’s fastest time. He was just 0.19 seconds off that time. Commenting on this after the session, he said: “I’m pretty happy, I’d say. As far as our pace is concerned, we looked quick on a fast lap at the end of the day.”

But the 26-year-old was quick to put things into perspective: “That said, it’s been the case several times this year that we’ve been quick in free practice only to fall behind again in qualifying.” And he summed up: “The first practice session didn’t go smoothly. We had a few problems that kept us in the pits for longer than we’d have liked. It would have been nice to do a few more laps without the red flag.”

“But we managed to improve between the two sessions. I hope we can step it up a notch now,” said the eleven-time Grand Prix winner, consoling himself, as he expects his team to be only the fourth-strongest force. “We haven’t changed anything, so there’s no reason to expect anything different from before. Red Bull Racing don’t usually show their full potential on Fridays, so they’ll be just as quick as us tomorrow, if not quicker. So we’ll just have to wait and see. We’ve pushed our engine to the limit; the others probably haven’t. That’s why everything currently suggests we’re the fourth-fastest,” he explained.

And Norris added: “If we get everything right, we might be a bit closer than we were at Silverstone. Let’s see what’s possible.”

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