Norris welcomes 'beautiful' qualifying result at COTA: 'One box ticked'

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Lando Norris P1 COTA US GP Qualifying pole position one box ticked
Today at 00:15
  • Kada Sarkozi
  • Editor

While the Sprint event was not perfect for Lando Norris, the Briton was the quickest in qualifying at the 2024 US Grand Prix. As a result, he can start tomorrow's Grand Prix ahead of his championship rival Max Verstappen.

Following Q3, Norris was very happy with his lap. "It was a beautiful lap. I was not going to go much quicker than I did. When you do a lap and know it's going to be tough to beat that. I put everything on the line," the Briton said after jumping out of his car.

While Verstappen could improve and was quicker than Norris on his final lap, George Russell crashed his Mercedes into the wall, and as a result, he eliminated the Dutchman's effort.

"It's what we needed to do. We have been on the backfoot pretty much the whole weekend. We haven't had the pace of the Ferraris or Red Bulls. So I had to do something and today I did that. A cool lap and a nice way to start the race tomorrow," Norris continued.

McLaren made changes after the Sprint

Norris eventually finished the Sprint earlier today in P3, behind Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. The Briton expects a difficult challenge on Sunday, but hopes his team were able make the right calls in terms of modifying their setup for the Grand Prix as well. "We changed quite a bit [after the Sprint] and made improvements we needed to make. Maybe not the quickest car today as Carlos said he was going to go quicker, Max would have gone quicker. Box number one ticked but tomorrow will be a tough race," the concluded at the Circuit of the Americas.


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