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Lando Norris comments on the 'shocking' pace of Max Verstappen
Lando Norris has reflected on his qualifying in Qatar, also revealing why McLaren isn't as quick as they were in Saturday's sprint race. The McLaren driver found it a shock that Red Bull was so far behind the competition in the sprint andhade now turned it around to be on pole position. It's just their second pole position in 16 races, demonstrating how different Formula 1 has been in 2024.
Norris: 'To see Red Bull slow yesterday was shocking'
In the post-session press conference, Norris said: "I mean my lap was probably just as good, if anything a bit better than it was yesterday, it's more these guys did a better job more than anything. I think to see Red Bull slow yesterday was the surprise," Norris explained. The Brit finished third in qualifying, as George Russell and polesitter Max Verstappen sit in front of him on the front row.
The McLaren driver continued: "They've not really (Red Bull) had a bad race the whole year, but they've always been there or thereabouts, so to see them as far off as they were yesterday was a bit of a shock to see them back where he is now is probably not the shock," Norris added.
Norris blames McLaren's loss of pace on downforce:
With that, Norris thinks downforce was the culprit for him and his teammate Oscar Piastri. The two McLaren drivers still finished first and second in the sprint race but failed to bring that speed to qualifying. "I think we're losing a good amount in the straights compared to the others it was close to a tenth to both George and Max before we even got to turn one, so there are some little losses, of course, that's probably downforce," Norris commented. McLaren finished one-two in the sprint race, which helped them extend their constructor's championship lead over Ferrari to 30 points. Norris let teammate Piastri by at the last corner to repay the Australian for letting him by at the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint.
"On a day like today, you could probably get away with taking some off because you kind of just get to that limit where you don't gain anything more in the high speed. But hopefully, tomorrow, that falls back into our hands just a little bit, so both my laps were good, especially today I think I don't think I could have got a lot more out of it. I was happy to get that out of it too." Norris concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Jeroen Immink
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