Lando Norris suspects the cooler conditions in qualifying inspired his McLaren Formula 1 car to “come alive” as he secured pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
McLaren has been a genuine match to Red Bull since Norris took his maiden win in Miami and he was the pacesetting driver through FP2 and FP3 at the Hungaroring.
The Briton maintained that momentum as he delivered a barnstorming lap on his initial attempt in Q3 to record a time over three-tenths quicker than Max Verstappen.
Both team-mate Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen managed to improve later in the session, but Norris held on to lead the first McLaren front row lockout since 2012.
“Always the pole positions are satisfying, I guess,” Norris expressed. “So, yeah, good. I think great for us as a team. We’re there first and second.
“I don’t know when we’ve last locked out a front row. But yeah, great one for the team, and tricky conditions to do it in, especially.
“So, not easy, but always good fun around here, and same time as much of the conditions are difficult, it’s still fun out there.
“So, yeah, some nice laps, especially my Q3 lap.
“I only had one set of new tyres, and we decided to put them on early just in case the rain came, which it kind of didn’t, but we still had a good enough lap to stay on pole, so happy with it.”
Despite intermittent rain lingering throughout and resulting in two stoppages from crashes, Norris has contended that the track conditions weren’t difficult to manage.
Instead, the one-time F1 race winner believes that the drop in track temperature compared to the opening practice sessions aided McLaren in the battle with Red Bull.
“Honestly, it wasn’t too difficult, apart from, I think, when the rain started to come back at the end of Q1,” he explained.
“I think it was, yeah, before there was the crash [from Sergio Perez], that was the only time when I backed off a bit more just to be safe.
“And it’s that time when you’re like, ‘do I push and take the risk or do I not?’
“But apart from that, honestly, the track dried so quickly, so as soon as it stopped raining, it was perfect, and yeah, I could push.
“I mean, the grip was high comparing to yesterday. It was night and day, you know, it’s like two and a half, two seconds quicker, so it felt a lot better today in general. The car came alive a lot more today than it was yesterday as well, so I think maybe that played into our hands a little bit, and tomorrow flips back to being pretty hot, so yeah, looking forward to it.”
Yuki Tsunoda’s late crash at Turn 5 in Q3 caused a red flag stoppage as several drivers were either completing or conducting their last attempts in the pole shootout.
But while seven drivers – including the McLarens – ventured back out once the session continued with two minutes remaining, Daniel Ricciardo was the sole improver.
Norris, who retreated to the pits and abandoned his closing attempt along with Piastri, has explained that McLaren wanted to ensure it covered all eventualities in Q3.
“A little bit of both. I still wanted to, just in case, any hope was there, but I didn’t really expect it to.
“You just want to be in the running in case something else happened, but I didn’t think many people expected, like we’re all on old tyres.
“I didn’t think anyone expected to go quicker, but it was just be there if we needed to be, that was all.”
McLaren has come under heightened criticism during recent races amid the team’s failure to translate a competitive car and strong starting slots into more race wins.
But despite rueing another close miss at Silverstone, Norris has insisted the Woking-based squad’s optimism regarding its chances heading into the race won’t waver.
“As confident, I think, as we have been for a while,” he previewed. “Like, both quali and races, we’ve been strong.
“I think our bad one is still, you know, it’s been third or fourth, but our good ones have been chances to win.
“So definitely, once again, a good opportunity for that for both of us and for us as a team to score some big points, and that’s our target tomorrow.”
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