Norris admits McLaren's fire disrupted his qualifying preparation
F1 News
Lando Norris confirmed the fire in the McLaren hospitality unit caused problems for the British driver ahead of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. In the end, Norris secured pole position by beating Max Verstappen by less than one-tenth.
It was a bit of a scare for the McLaren team. As FP3 was about to start, there was suddenly a fire in the British team's hospitality unit. This was eventually extinguished. The team informed that an employee was taken to hospital as a precaution but has since been released. The fire didn't cause any delays in getting the cars on track for FP3.
Did the fire cause problems for Norris?
"It's never a nice thing but it's just a bit more of a stressful day than I would have liked. I lost my shoes and that was probably as bad as it got for me," Norris reported.
But it did disrupt his usual preparation for qualifying. "I've not been in my normal room and I've not been able to maybe relax and chill out as much as I normally do, but I've had a lot of offers from people so it's been great, but a lot of the teams obviously have been very, very nice to us and offering help so that was all good from that side but it’s a shame that it won't be used today or tomorrow," he continued.
Norris reiterated that he was pleased everyone was safe after the incident. He will start Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix from pole position with Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the places behind. It's Norris' second pole position in his career after he claimed he set a "perfect lap" in Barcelona.