Lando Norris says he was by no means involved by the hole to Oscar Piastri on Friday on the Belgian Grand Prix after beating his annoyed teammate to pole place in qualifying Saturday.
Piastri was quickest in Dash qualifying by almost half a second over Max Verstappen, and 0.6s over Norris, with a robust efficiency at Spa-Francorchamps. It was Norris who hit again to take pole on Saturday afternoon, although, beating Piastri by a little bit beneath 0.1s, and he says there was an excessive amount of made from the hole on Friday.
“Everybody was fairly fearful after yesterday,” Norris stated. “I wasn’t even that far off. It was only a couple little points that we had, so I used to be assured after yesterday and assured coming into immediately. It is good to see that I may get again to the highest.
“Three tenths is simply slipstream and never being first out the pit lane … nothing to fret about. Folks wish to make lots of issues up, however no, I felt good. The automotive has been flying all weekend.
“Oscar’s been doing an excellent job all weekend, so we’re pushing one another lots. It is powerful since you form of see the place your strengths and weaknesses are … and also you study from one another rapidly. It is a good however powerful battle that we have now on the minute.”
Having been to date away from his teammate initially of the weekend, Piastri was left to rue a mistake in Q3 that he says value him lots of lap time and ended his hopes of taking pole.
“I feel [enough time for pole was lost], yeah,” Piastri stated. “The lap till that time was robust, nevertheless it would not actually matter in the event you may have accomplished it. I did not. A bit disappointing. I feel each laps in Q3 had been a little bit bit like that, however that is the way it goes generally. A little bit of a disgrace, however the automotive was nice once more. I felt like I used to be in a fairly good movement, simply did not fairly occur on the second lap.
“In all honesty, it felt very comparable [to Friday]. You get just a few extra laps on softs, you discover the boundaries a bit extra, you push the restrict a bit extra, perhaps, and immediately that most likely bit, nevertheless it nonetheless felt excellent. I had simply as a lot confidence as yesterday, so it positively wasn’t that.”
Piastri echoed Norris’ feedback that the McLaren drivers have a troublesome scenario after they can see one another’s knowledge.
“I feel we’re an excellent teammate pairing and we study lots from one another each weekend,” he stated. “That is what makes us such an excellent staff, nevertheless it additionally makes it tough whenever you’re making an attempt to battle one another. I really feel like I did an OK job immediately; simply did not fairly execute when it mattered.”
