Lando Norris admitted he was struggling with the handling of his McLaren early in qualifying after almost being eliminated in the first round.
The McLaren driver went on to take a vital pole position in his championship fight with Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver dropped out in Q2 and is set to start from 17th place.Norris secured his place in Q2 by just two-tenths of a second. “I had a lot of work to do,” he said afterwards. “I was not comfortable at all.”
He admitted pole position came as a surprise following his difficulties at the start of the session.
“To end up on pole – I worked at it a lot through qualifying, I had a lot of areas I needed to improve on, but I did exactly that. So I’m little surprised, again.
“I’ve been surprised a little bit lately but a little bit surprised to be on pole. But some nice laps, I felt good in the end and a good result for us.”
Five drivers crashed in the rain-hit session, leaving some likely to start from the pit lane or potentially unable to take part at all. Norris said that made it essential not to take too many risks.
“You saw how many people were going off and crashing and locking off, so it was easy to end up badly and end up in a wall or do something where you might not even make your race later today,” he said. “So that risk [versus] reward was not easy today.
“Especially from where I was in Q1, I found it very tough to know how much more can I push. So that’s why I’m happy, because it’s a relieving qualifying after something like this. So very happy at the same time.”
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2024 Brazilian Grand Prix
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PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
3rd November 2024, 13:54
Lando has his work cut out today, George to his left and Max’s wing man behind him.
When you think about it Max is effectively starting 13th as Albon is a non starter and 3 wing men who will jump out the way…
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
3rd November 2024, 13:55
Posted in the wrong article… Doh