Lando Norris says he did not notice how good his pole place lap on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix was till he noticed his remaining occasions, however his senses with McLaren aligned on the proper second.
McLaren hasn’t taken pole place since Oscar Piastri at Zandvoort, and Norris himself final took pole place at Spa-Francorchamps earlier than the summer time break, however he set a formidable remaining lap late in Q3. Norris, who recorded a time of 1 minute 15.586 seconds, beat provisional pole sitter Charles Leclerc by greater than 1 / 4 of a second and mentioned his time was sooner than anticipated.
“That is what made it complicated…I imply, it was clearly an unbelievable lap,” Norris mentioned. “I braked far and wide, pushed slightly extra excessive velocity, and all that stuff, however there was no delta, so I did not know if it was going up or down, good or unhealthy, or anything.
“There have been just a few little locations the place I assumed I missed the contact and I did not have the perfect exit, just like the exit of (Flip) 6, however apart from that I used to be fairly good. I used to be proud of it, however I used to be pondering it could be extra like 15.9 seconds or 15.8 seconds. I assumed if I may get forward of Charles, I would be fairly comfortable.”
“So once I noticed that I obtained 15.5 seconds on the sprint, I had an enormous smile on my face as a result of it was a type of laps, the place every thing got here collectively by way of really feel. It was very pure, just like the lap in Monaco. It has been some time so it is a good feeling. Irrespective of how briskly I used to be, I do not actually get that feeling on this automotive this yr, however I am comfortable for that.”
He admits the margin is a bit shocking, not solely as a result of this lap was essential in giving Norris pole place, but additionally as a result of Norris began from seventh, 5 rows forward of Max Verstappen and two rows forward of teammate Oscar Piastri.
“It’s powerful as a result of I really feel like I’m doing a very good job,” he mentioned. “I really feel like I’ve had fairly a weekend, particularly once I felt prefer it in the present day. Truly all day in the present day, it wasn’t simply the laps in Q3 that had been good. FP3 was already robust and it was loads higher than yesterday.”
“Q1, Q2, Q3 – all my laps had been good – no errors, no lock-ups, nothing. I used to be in a position to enhance in a great way. The automotive is extremely quick, nevertheless it’s not simple to drive. I believe we had been annoyed about it as drivers, however you simply get right into a little bit of a rhythm and it’s flying, and that was me in the present day.”
