Lando Norris: The pole-setter starts the Spanish Grand Prix with this disadvantage

Lando Norris has shown what he’s capable of on the new Madring circuit: the McLaren star secured pole position on the challenging street circuit – with a lap that even he can’t explain. After the qualifying session, he was in high spirits when asked how he’d managed to pull off that decisive lap. And he joked: “That’s a secret!”

On a slightly more serious note, the champion added: “I don’t know. I had a good feeling. Of course, I didn’t set a timed lap in the second practice session, so I was a bit behind. But there were a few corners where I knew exactly what I wanted to do. In both the first and second chicanes, I knew where the limit was. It was just difficult to put that into practice beforehand in qualifying.”

The perfect lap at the right moment

“I managed to improve by seven or seven-tenths on my final lap. I can’t really take pride in that. But I can be proud that I managed it in Q3 when it really mattered. It was simply a perfect lap. I was able to execute exactly what I’d set out to do on every lap. In the final hairpin, I had a brief moment of panic – I was a bit too excited and simply wanted a bit too much going into the corner. To be honest, I thought I was going to end up in the wall. But it was enough. And the lap was just brilliant; I came out of the corners well and was also strong on the kerbs. I got all the details right that matter here,” said the 26-year-old, giving himself high marks.

However, the 13-time GP winner heads into the race with a big question mark hanging over him, as he emphasised: “The time I missed in the second practice session really makes a difference. I haven’t really had the chance yet to do a lap with a full tank of fuel. So I need to do my homework and see what my team-mate got up to yesterday. I need to work out how we can prepare for the race. We’re in for a long race. It’s a new circuit and you need to know which corners you can push to the limit in and which sections you need to take carefully. So I’ll have to get to grips with a lot of things tonight. It’s likely to be a late night, and I’ll try to prepare everything properly. But we’ve managed the most important part today, and that just makes me happy.”

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