Lando Norris said he put in a sub-par performance after qualifying fifth for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver will start from fourth place following Max Verstappen’s penalty, which remains his lowest grid position since the Monaco Grand Prix. He said he was satisfied with the result but admitted he hasn’t been performing at his best.“It was tough but I’m honestly pretty happy with today,” Norris told the official F1 channel. “I think in the end, me and Oscar were split by half a tenth or something. Clearly we were lacking comparing to the cars ahead. Especially the Red Bull – the Red Bull is on another level comparing to us in the rain and even the dry they were probably still a bit stronger.
“So a tough day. I expected worse, and I’ve not been driving particularly well. Just one of those days where it’s just not clicking. Kind of similar to yesterday, honestly, just a little bit of a struggle out there for me. So to salvage P5, I was pretty happy with that.”
Norris will start behind Charles Leclerc, who inherited pole position from Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. He predicted he and Verstappen will meet on track during the race, but expects the set-up choices McLaren have made will help them.
“We’re in a good spot, but remember Red Bull on pole [sic], and they’re clearly the quickest,” he said. “So it’ll be tough.
“Max is going to come through, I think, pretty quickly. I’m most likely going to be fighting him for the win.
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“But I’m hoping with maybe a slightly lower downforce setting that we chose today, it comes back into our favour.
Norris’ team mate Oscar Piastri, who will start immediately behind him in fifth place, also believes McLaren “can still fight for the win tomorrow.”
“I think our pace was very strong yesterday in the dry and it’s looking like a dry race tomorrow. Obviously starting a little bit further back makes life a bit more tricky, but I still think we’re in decent shape to fight for a win.”
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2024 Belgian Grand Prix
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Edvaldo
27th July 2024, 18:04
The guy is starting 4th and already counting out the 3 guys ahead of him who did better a better job than him today, of the fight for the win.
I expect another disappointment.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
27th July 2024, 21:53
Don’t move over for Max. He’s not lapping you.