Lando Norris says he wasn’t certain how good his pole place lap was on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix till he noticed his remaining time, however that his feeling with the McLaren got here collectively on the proper second.
McLaren hasn’t had a pole place since Oscar Piastri at Zandvoort, whereas Norris himself final began on pole earlier than the summer season break at Spa-Francorchamps, however he pulled out a superb remaining lap on the finish of Q3. Posting a 1m15.586s, Norris says the time was faster than he anticipated, as he beat provisional polesitter Charles Leclerc by over 1 / 4 of a second.
“That is the complicated factor… I imply, clearly it was an unbelievable lap,” Norris mentioned. “I pushed the braking all over the place, I pushed the excessive pace a bit extra and all these issues, however I haven’t got a delta, so I didn’t know if I used to be up, if I used to be down, if it was good, dangerous, no matter.
“There have been a few little locations the place I assumed I tousled a contact and did not get one of the best exits, like out of [Turn] 6, however the remainder of it felt fairly respectable. I used to be joyful, however I assumed I might be extra like a 15.9s, 15.8s. I assumed if I might get forward of Charles, I might be fairly joyful.
“So after I noticed 15.5s on my sprint, it put a fairly large smile on my face as a result of it was a kind of laps which was – all the things simply got here collectively by way of feeling. It was very pure and just like my lap in Monaco. An excellent feeling as a result of it has been some time. It isn’t that usually this yr I get that feeling on this automobile, even with how fast it’s, however I’m joyful due to this.”
Not solely was the lap vital in giving Norris pole place, it additionally sees him begin two rows forward of Max Verstappen in fifth and teammate Oscar Piastri in seventh, a margin he admits is barely shocking.
“It is robust as a result of I do really feel like I’m doing an excellent job,” he mentioned. “I really feel like I’ve been for a very good quantity of weekends now, particularly after I get this sense that I had at the moment. Truly, the entire day at the moment – it’s not simply my Q3 lap that was good. FP3 was sturdy already and a very good step higher than it was yesterday.
“Q1, Q2, Q3 – all of my laps have been good – no errors, no lock-ups, none of this stuff. I may simply enhance in a great way. The automobile is extremely fast, nevertheless it’s not straightforward to drive. I believe we each complained of that as drivers, however once you simply get in that little little bit of a rhythm, it is flying, and that’s the place I used to be at the moment.”
