Why Lando Norris was braced for compromised qualifying even prior to F1 Italian GP weekend

Lando Norris has divulged that he had been aware since last week that he was going to have to endure a compromised qualifying at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.

Norris overcame several setbacks to claim a front-row start at Monza alongside Max Verstappen, who pipped the McLaren driver to pole position with a last-gasp lap.

The Briton had topped the second and third practice sessions, but he came close to experiencing a premature elimination when he made an error on his initial Q2 run.

Norris had to abandon his lap as he overshot the opening chicane, while his next attempt wasn’t good enough to book a passage into Q3 once other drivers improved.

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However, Norris crossed the line with enough time in hand to have a third go at it, and he proceeded to survive the scare with a lap that promoted him into the top five.

“It definitely wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve ever been, just because I wasn’t in that rhythm,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week.

“To try and put in those laps, especially when you lock up in Turn 1, that’s the one place it’s hard. It kind of knocks the confidence the most.

“My Q2 run… my run two, first lap one was pretty bad. It was just so close. I think I improved almost a tenth, but it gained me six positions or something. Shows how such a small amount of lap time can help.

“I was definitely feeling it in both Q3, run two and Q2, run two, lap two. Not the best feeling inside the car at that point. That’s why I’m relatively happy I got into Q3 because I was out for a little while, and then to put it all together for Q3, run two as well.”

Why Norris was at a compromise in Q3

But despite making it through, Norris concluded the opening Q3 laps down in seventh as he had to cope without a tow from a car ahead down Monza’s vast straights.

With McLaren alternating which driver exits the pit lane ahead at each race, Norris has admitted that he knew he would be on the back foot heading into the weekend.

“Terrible, but I had no choice,” he expressed. “Everyone’s waiting for us to go out first, really.

“I knew already last week that I was going to have a bad Q1 because I knew I was going to have to go out the pit lane first, and that was always going to be the expectation.

“It’s tough because you know it’s never going to be a pole lap, especially without straight line speed, which is quite a long way down on pretty much everyone.

“It’s impossible to even set a competitive lap. So it’s not the most reassuring thing doing Q1 and doing, like, a 19.5, pretty much, being about five and a half tenths off pole at that point.

“Not the best feeling inside the car. Especially, in Q3, run two, I knew I had a slipstream, but it’s hard to know how much just the slipstream is going to help me a little bit.

“I don’t know what it’s like over a whole lap – maybe three tenths or something. It’s a mixture of having someone pushing some air in front of you.

“It was still a good lap, easily my best lap that I did. Like I said, I knew last weekend that I was going to be first out on Q3, run one. So it went exactly how I thought it would go.”

Norris, though, did capitalise on having a car ahead punching a hole in the air on his second run to steal pole position until Verstappen usurped him right at the death.

Asked whether he thought he had done enough once he completed his run, Norris answered: “I’ll say no just because it was a pretty bad qualifying from my behalf.

“I think it was the best lap I did in quali by like six tenths or something. So impressive that I managed to improve so much – or probably impressive that I did such a bad job prior to that.

“But I think Max has been pretty good all weekend. I think also us as a team since FP1 already, we found that we were not quite in as good of a rhythm and had the pace advantage that we’ve had the past few weekends.

“So of course we wanted P1, but I don’t think we’d be disappointed to take a P2 either.”

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