Lando Norris has admitted that he is anticipating Max Verstappen to be a threat in Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix, despite the Red Bull driver starting down in seventh.
Norris has emerged as Verstappen’s nearest contender in the Drivers’ Championship since McLaren overhauled Red Bull as the benchmark team earlier in the season.
But while he languishes a sizeable 70 points behind Verstappen, Norris will have a glorious chance to create inroads on the Dutchman, who qualified in seventh place.
McLaren’s MCL38 was once again a class apart as Norris led a McLaren front-row lock-out, however, as Red Bull’s struggles saw its drivers resigned to the fourth row.
Norris is not discounting Verstappen charging through to be in contention, though, as he contended that Red Bull’s pace was better than it showed in the last session.
Asked how big an opportunity the race will be to impose some damage on Verstappen’s points lead, Norris responded: “Yeah, for sure. It’s a good opportunity.
“I mean, I expect him to come through and probably be behind us quite quickly.
“Their race pace looked very strong on Friday. They were on the better side of the graining and the degradation, so I expect them to probably be a bit more hopeful tomorrow.
“For some reason, they just didn’t seem to take those steps forward through qualifying.
“He still seemed quick, like in Q2 he was right there and ended up quicker than me, even on a used tyre. And even his gap to Perez wasn’t as big as what it normally is.
“So I don’t know if he just struggled more with something or just didn’t put good enough laps in, but… Yeah, it’ll be for a reason, I’m sure.
“And yeah, we need to try and make the most of that.”
Norris converted his pole position advantage last weekend at Zandvoort into a dominant 22-second triumph over Verstappen, the largest winning margin this season.
However, Norris is cautious about being able to replicate that at Monza amid the scorching track temperatures that are poised to make degradation a deciding factor.
“Honestly, I think when you look back to Zandvoort, you could say yes,” Norris replied when asked whether he thinks McLaren will maintain the edge in race conditions.
“There’s enough evidence that led us to believe we could have a very, very strong race.
“Here, less so, just because it’s been so close, but we’re still first and second, which means we have a good car, and that normally translates well into a good race car.
“But I think tomorrow there are more question marks with, you know, graining and degradation and things like that.
“You know, everyone’s 4-1-2 with tyres and probably a little bit more nervous of what can happen and what might happen.
“But we’re in the best position for it. So excited to see what we can do.”
Norris’ wretched run when it comes to retaining pole position on the opening lap continued at Zandvoort as he surrendered the lead to Verstappen even before Turn 1.
With Monza boasting the second longest run down to the first turn on the calendar, Norris has disclosed that McLaren has evaluated some solutions to its slow starts.
“What [have] we learned? I mean, a couple of things,” he stated. “For sure, we of course reviewed things like we always do.
“And I feel like we’ve made progress so far with our practice launches and stuff like that. So, yeah, just crack on and do our best.”
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