The British driver achieved his best seasonal starting result in his and his team’s home race, with a very impressive front row. Norris had showed great pace in Q1 already, finishing the session on top, and led briefly in all the other qualifying segments, ultimately having to concede pole to the reigning champion Max Verstappen.
Happiness for yet another very positive result after the fourth place achieved in Austria, Norris broke down his qualifying in the interviews after the end of the session:
“I was close, you know! I was P1 in Q1, I was in Q2, and close – two-tenths – to P1 in Q3, so pretty insane, and my last lap was a good lap.”
It was an amazing and emotional day not only for Norris, but for the whole McLaren team as well, as his teammate Oscar Piastri will line up in P3 for tomorrow after a difficult start of the season:
“I could hear Zak on the radio on the in-lap, which was the best thing ever. It’s great for myself, but also for both of us, to be second and third, was pretty amazing for the whole team.”
Photo credit: McLaren Racing
The Woking-based team has had an incredible comeback since its very hard beginning of the season, where both Norris and Piastri struggled to even score points, only twice in the top ten after the first five rounds:
“It makes up for everything, you know. All the hard work that we’ve been putting in, especially here, with the new livery, a home race for the team and for myself.
“We couldn’t have had a better result today, apart from Max, again – he ruins everything! But the rest was pretty amazing, so a big thanks to everyone,” he concluded with a laugh.
Asked if he thought about actually beating Verstappen in scoring pole position in Silverstone, Norris admitted that it could have come only if the Red Bull driver had made a mistake, but that his lap has still been very impressive:
“I mean, I was watching… There’s a lot of TV screens around the circuit, so I was trying to watch every single one possible, and I’m surprised how long I stayed at the top for, but it just kind of depended on when Max was going to cross the line so…”
McLaren has brought a great number of upgrades recently, including a new front wing, part of which had been run by Norris in the Red Bull Ring weekend. At Silverstone, even more updates have come, and the new parts were built and added also to Piastri’s car.
The upgraded version of the MCL60 today has performed very impressively and showed good speed, almost enough to battle with the two times World Champion, which had left the six times podium finisher “surprised” as well:
“I guess I am a little bit surprised, I wasn’t expecting for us to be here or for myself to be here anyway. I think we’re very happy with the result but it was more if Max made a mistake rather than if we were quicker than him. He’s doing a very good job, the team are doing a very good job from his side.”
Even if he didn’t manage to secure his second career pole position in Formula One after Sochi 2021, Norris is still very satisfied with his performance:
“I put a good lap in, no mistakes, it was a much clearer run than my Q3 one run one. But it was a good quali. I think P1 in Q1, P1 in Q2 and almost P1 in Q3 but not quite so I’m still happy with that,” he concluded.
