Lando Norris, McLaren, Monza, 2021

Norris sees chance to fight Verstappen for third

2021 Italian Grand Prix

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Lando Norris is hopeful of fighting Max Verstappen for third place in tomorrow’s sprint qualifying race ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

The pair will share row two on the grid at Monza tomorrow having been separated by just two-hundredths of a second at the end of qualifying.

McLaren “made some good improvements” to their car in the single hour of practice before today’s qualifying session, said Norris.

“It’s been good since the start, which is nice, and we’ve just been able to work on it quite a bit. So it was good.

“Just to find that little bit more time would have been nice, whatever it was, half a tenth to Max or less that – half of half a tenth. That just would have been lovely. But I’m happy with fourth, it’s a good position for tomorrow.”

Norris has team mate Daniel Ricciardo immediately behind him in fifth place while Sergio Perez lines up ninth in the other Red Bull. McLaren may have a chance to beat Red Bull this weekend, Norris believes.

“I think we just need to stay where we are. If we can have an opportunity to maybe overtake Max – I think we’re maybe a bit closer to him, the Mercedes are a long way up the road so I don’t feel like we’re really racing them – but we could have a chance against against the Red Bulls.

“We’re ahead of Perez and almost ahead of Max. But we’ll wait and see. I’m not sure. We have to look at out high-fuel pace.”

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2021 Italian Grand Prix

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11 comments on “Norris sees chance to fight Verstappen for third”

  1. Lewis this year doesn’t do always good starts and he is on the dirty side of the road, so many things can happen tomorrow.

    1. I’m confused, did you mean lando hamilton, or lewis norris?

    2. Bottas has been worse and he is ahead of Max.

  2. For me, seeing Ferrari and McLaren go head to head in the Championship is the highlight of the season. This week McLaren seems to be ahead and Danny Ric is finally showing some speed. I would be very impressed if McLaren beats Red Bull on merit in Monza.

  3. Love it if Ric sweeps past both Lando and Max to go third.

    1. Doubt that will happen. Ricciardo is not on their level

      1. This comment aged horrendously. Lol.

  4. Ricciardo 0.006 off Lando. Has shown good pace since coming back from the break.

    Guess he needs to do it for a few more races and we might get a positive Ricciardo piece Racefans?

    1. 0.006 without the tow nonetheless, but I doubt it, there would be three stories about it if ric had qualified 9th..

    2. Great to see Ricciardo so close to Norris after he’s had such a terrible year and we have seen how Norris has shown the true performance of the McLaren. But Lets see how he goes in the race and over the next couple of races.

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