McLaren has had a car that both drivers have admitted has been difficult to drive in 2026, but Lando Norris revealed he learned “pretty quickly” how to extract the most from it in the wet.
The Brit stormed to pole position for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, in a qualifying session fraught with rainfall, that truncated running for over an hour.
Norris utilised the most of his MCL40 package, that has not been the easiest to drive this season, to snatch top spot from George Russell, who looked set to take P1.
It’s back-to-back poles at Interlagos for Norris, who admitted that this year’s came under rather different circumstances.
“Well, it’s been a long day; it’s been a great qualifying,” he said to Sky Sports F1. “Obviously, to be on pole again here two years in a row [sic] is…different conditions to last year, but I’m very happy.”
Norris continued: “It wasn’t easy conditions out there, especially when you know it’s going to rain a lot more. It was about getting two laps in at the beginning, not making any mistakes, and that’s exactly what we did, so it’s been a very good day.”
With Russell’s grid penalty factored in, 2025 champion Norris will be joined on the front row by the sister Mercedes of the new World Champion, Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Norris acknowledged that the pole coincided with his first true running of the MCL40 in the wet this season, and found something in it that he could quickly adapt to as the rain fell.
“This was my first time driving the car in the wet, so I think I figured it out pretty quickly,” he said. “It was tough: Wet, Inters, all different tyres.
“It was very windy as well on the last couple of laps, so it’s certainly a good day for learning for me and good to take into tomorrow.”
Timing proved decisive. Norris’s pole lap was slower than Russell’s best in Q2, but it was set in the segment that counted, with Russell stuck behind the Williams of Alex Albon. When the drivers got another chance to improve, the rain had returned with a all drivers aborting lap and returning to the pits.
Norris concluded: “It was about getting two laps in at the beginning, not making any mistakes, and that’s exactly what we did.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris takes rain-sodden Sao Paulo pole as surprises take over F1 grid
Discussion about this post