Norris sets sights on top five finish after P2 qualifying result

Lando Norris says he is hopeful he can hold onto a position within the top five at the British Grand Prix following his star performance in qualifying.

Norris will line up on the front row alongside Max Verstappen, who secured his seventh pole position of the 2023 Formula 1 season.

McLaren’s pace across the last two weekends in the upgraded MCL60 has been a notable step forward, with rookie Oscar Piastri also starring to third place during qualifying at Silverstone.

Norris ended last weekend’s race from the Red Bull Ring in fourth place and is confident that he can pull off a similar result this time around.

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“If we look at Austria – I know Austria is a much different circuit than this – we performed extremely well in qualifying,” Norris said. 

“We managed to back it up a reasonable amount in the race. 

“I want to be hopeful, I’m not normally hopeful going into a Sunday because of how this year has been and how things normally go at certain tracks come Sunday. 

“But I got some reasons to believe and some hope after our pace today, how we were on Friday sometimes, we can have a good race tomorrow. 

“Probably not enough to race this guy [Verstappen] but enough to put up a fight for hopefully a top five.”

McLaren’s dramatic turnaround in form follows a difficult start to the campaign when it was languishing towards the rear of the field after missing out on development targets.

With its upgraded package proving to be a considerable step forward, Norris says that McLaren is entering race weekends with a more positive outlook.

“I don’t think the expectations were low [ahead of qualfiying],” Norris said. 

“I guess some qualifyings like this, when it’s wet and dry, it’s always very difficult to anticipate what’s going to happen in the whole thing. 

“But some quicker cars were knocked out earlier on, I think that opened up more opportunities for us to be sitting here. But my Friday wasn’t that great. FP3 was a bit tricky with the conditions. 

“I didn’t have the most confidence all weekend, but I managed to pull it out when it mattered. So I’m happy with that.”