McLaren’s Lando Norris has revealed that he was balancing the “risk versus reward” factor as he secured pole position in the wet at Formula 1‘s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris navigated an incident-strewn qualifying session which comprised five stoppages in Brazil to storm to top spot with a two-tenth advantage over George Russell.
The Briton experienced a narrow escape in Q1 when he ended the opening session on the cusp in 15th place, but he recovered to then lead proceedings in Q2 and Q3.
Norris surviving that near miss proved vital to his championship hopes as title rival Max Verstappen, who will also take on a five-place grid drop, was eliminated in Q2.
But although he appeared at ease in the treacherous conditions come the end, Norris has conceded that it was an initial struggle to extract lap time from his McLaren.
“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,” Norris said. “So I’m [a] little surprised.
“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.”
Norris reveals key to Brazil pole
Norris has admitted that it was a challenge inside the cockpit to assess how much risk to take when the margin between gaining time and losing control was so tight.
“One wheel spin, George would be on pole today,” he contended. “One wheel spin cost you easily one and a half, two-tenths.
“So, I got just a mega exit out of all the slow-speed corners. I kept it clean, and I think just a clean lap was what got me pole today.
“People don’t realise how easily things can go wrong, how quickly, whether it’s a snap out of two.
“What happened to Alex [Albon], what happened to Fernando [Alonso], what happened to Lance [Stroll], like, even Yuki [Tsunoda]
“You know, there was a lot of places things could go horribly wrong today, and that was the point I kind of said at the beginning, was the risk versus reward.
“It was very difficult to know, OK, it’s a tiny bit wetter now, do I push as much as before because I want to risk it and I want to be on pole?
“Or do I take it a bit easier and just get the car home in one piece?
“That’s always playing on your mind a little bit, but my approach was the correct one. The approach was the correct one for qualifying.”
Norris anticipates tough race start
With the rain expected to remain heading into the race, Norris is anticipating similar circumstances to the nascent stages of qualifying when spray became a problem.
“Hopefully, I just start as I ended,” he added. “That would be the best thing, but a race is a completely different job.
“The conditions, I’m sure, are going to change. It was much nicer when it stopped raining, people could get more laps in, and the spray was less.
“The spray was so much in the beginning.
“You have to be almost 10 seconds behind the car in front to kind of see where you’re going, see where the brake markers were, all of those things.
“You don’t get those opportunities at the start of a race. Yes, difficult, but we’ll find out later.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris takes pole in chaotic Brazil F1 qualifying, Max Verstappen out in Q2
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