Lando Norris has admitted McLaren has “struggled to progress” through the sessions at Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix despite claiming a dominant pole position.
Norris went into qualifying labelled as the man the rest would have to beat as he topped the second and third practice hours in a McLaren that is the class of the field.
The Briton was on course to attain provisional pole on his opening run in Q3 when Carlos Sainz shunted his Ferrari at the final corner and the session was suspended.
However, Norris retained his composure on his sole run in the all-important shootout to seize his sixth F1 pole with a two-tenth margin over title rival Max Verstappen.
Norris, though, has conceded that the heightened pressure on his shoulders to deliver with one timed attempt meant that he was unable to complete his optimum lap.
“Not particularly good,” Norris reflected on his pole position run. “Just because it’s difficult. It’s hard to do everything around here in one lap.
“So I was a bit down in the first sector, probably a couple of tenths, and then I felt like I had to try and push a bit harder in the middle sector to make up for it and that kind of thing.
“But it still felt good. We’ve been good all weekend. Just struggled to progress much from practice into quali.
“We just found a good set-up there and stuck and didn’t really progress at all, really.
“I went only a touch quicker than what I did in FP3. So I expected a bit more and probably found it a bit more difficult than I would have liked in both Q1, Q2 and Q3.
“But the car’s been amazing all weekend, so it felt good and felt comfortable just to go out and put the lap in.”
McLaren has made minimal changes in Singapore
Norris revealed that there have been minimal changes made to the set-up on his McLaren MCL38 through the weekend as the balance was straight into a sweet spot.
Pressed to pinpoint the reason behind ending up one-tenth quicker than his FP3 time, Norris replied: “I think it’s tough to say.
“I think we’ve just done a very good job at arriving at the track and the car works well.
“I mean, we haven’t touched the car all weekend. Mainly because no matter what we do, it doesn’t really make much difference.
“We’ve kind of just had the car and not had to do a lot to it, but that’s also a good thing in many ways.
“But it was still a handful to drive in the end, like the Q3 lap at the end was tough with locking, with the bumps.
“I made quite a few mistakes, so the car was still tricky to drive, but very quick. And that just allows me to drive at 99% and still deliver, so just a combination of several things.”
Norris optimistic about his race chances
Norris is confident that he will be able to convert pole position into a much-needed win in Singapore as long as he retains the lead down to the first corner at the start.
The two-time F1 race victor has been unable to hold the advantage on the opening lap all seven times he’s started on pole and he will have Verstappen alongside him.
“I mean, quite a bit,” he replied when questioned on how optimistic he is about the race. “We’ve been very good all weekend. People have caught up, clearly.
“We’ve gone into quali there and clearly Max improved a lot from yesterday into today. Mercedes as well, they were very quick in Q2, so they were there.
“They were up there on my tails, a bit close for my liking, comparing to what I had in FP3 and things.
“But I’m confident that the car is good in both quali and race. We showed that already on Friday.
“So I’m confident if I can just get ahead, then I get my head down and can go away.”
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