Lando Norris admitted he put “pointless stress” on himself earlier than taking pole place on the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris locked up on the primary lap of Q3, leaving him in tenth place.
Regardless of the added stress, Norris produced a robust lap and took pole place forward of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
Norris continues his spectacular kind, opening up a nine-point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri.
Norris managed the dash race from pole place, passing Antonelli.
Piastri, however, crashed at Flip 2 on the seventh lap of the dash, ending his title hopes.
Piastri will begin the Grand Prix from fourth place, with Norris doubtlessly extending a big lead within the championship standings with three races remaining after tomorrow’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Wanting again on qualifying, Norris mentioned, “Situations have been robust. It was simply slippery. It wasn’t constant, but it surely was a whole lot of enjoyable.”
“It is all the time enjoyable on this course. I felt good. I locked up on the primary lap, so I used to be feeling a little bit little bit of stress, so it was a little bit extra demanding than I believed it might be.”
“I stayed calm when it mattered and was very completely satisfied to place all of it collectively.”
“When you keep calm, you could be on the prime.”
Norris’ calm below stress is commendable contemplating the variety of errors he made in qualifying earlier this 12 months.
The British driver was unable to run constantly clear laps on the finish of Q3.
Because the summer time break, Norris has constantly outperformed Piastri.
Other than Zandvoort, the place Piastri benefited from a slipstream on the ultimate lap of Q3 to beat Norris to pole place, the British driver has been constantly fast.
Norris added: “We’re in excellent kind. In fact the staff gave me an important automotive and I all the time need to thank the staff. At the moment I didn’t make it simple for the staff or for myself.”
“I nonetheless need to push. Q3, I ran one and locked up in Flip 1. That places pointless stress on me and the opposite guys are doing a superb job.”
“If I can get into a superb rhythm, keep calm and put it collectively, I believe I can come out on prime.”
Norris is hoping for a “clear” race with no interference from Antonelli or Charles Leclerc from behind.
“They’re very quick and I knew Kimi would push as exhausting as he might till the top,” Norris mentioned.
“In some methods I’m trying ahead to it, however in some methods I’m not.
“I believe it should be a giant problem tomorrow. We’ll need to see what the climate is like once more. It’ll be a giant problem tomorrow.”
“It’s been clear thus far this weekend, so I hope they don’t mess it up.”
