Lando Norris explained the Hungaroring circuit has provided “a good challenge” amid unpredictability due to the tarmac “being broken up in places”.
The Brit stole pole position from Lewis Hamilton in the final seconds of Q3 to take pole position for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix, underlining a significant McLaren improvement through its latest upgrades suite.
Norris appeared to be out of contention from the evidence of free practice on Friday, but appeared to place McLaren back into contention with setting the fastest time in FP3 in the morning.
With expectations then placed on the reigning World Champion, he rose to the expectations by stealing pole position to give himself a serious chance of a first win of the season on Sunday.
Speaking after qualifying, Norris intimated of difficulties tackling the circuit, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on the F1 calendar this weekend, and when asked to explain further, identified parts of it that be claimed is “broken up in places”.
“I mean, it’s just been difficult all weekend in the last sector,” he said. “Just look at any on-board, and the last two corners, Turn 13 and 14, have just been very, very difficult just to get right.
“It feels like either you underdrive it or you push it a little bit more and you’re hustling, the rear’s letting go, push understeer, snaps. So, it was just very difficult to know how much to push and not push and things like that.
“And also because the track’s just pretty broken up in places and there’s a lot of different patches of tarmac in Turn 1 and Turn 12. I struggled to kind of get a consistent feeling of what was best or what the car was doing every time in these kind of corners.”
Lando Norris reveals where McLaren ‘cannot match’ Ferrari
Norris is aware of the significant challenge Ferrari poses, with Hamilton next to him on the grid [but is under investigation for impeding Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri], and Charles Leclerc directly behind in third place.
“And Turn 1 and turn 12, honestly, were our biggest losses to the Ferraris every single lap, in kind of just braking and cornering speed,” he continued. “And we just cannot match them in these kind of very slow-speed corners, which we know from Monaco and various other tracks.
“We know that we struggle in these kind of corners, but… Yeah, the tarmac’s certainly trickier than last year. It’s normally quite relatively high grip, very smooth.
“Certainly this year it’s quite a bit trickier with the newer tarmac, which is worse than the old tarmac and makes it quite difficult to get a good balance, basically.
“But it’s the same for everyone.It’s just a good challenge.”
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