After P15 in the only practice session of the weekend, due to soft tyre saving for the Sprint format, the McLaren driver will start the Texas race from the second best spot on the grid.
The result came as a surprise to Norris, as the American layout didn’t suit the MCL60 as much as other tracks on the Formula 1 calendar, as he said after the end of the session:
“I’m happy, it’s been a good day. Probably not expected from the end result, so a good bonus for the whole team. I didn’t make as many mistakes as I made last week, which is a good thing. I think we had it today.”
In spite of the great starting position, the British driver was self critical, as he believes he could have had a shot at scoring his second career pole position.
“I think there was enough in it to get pole. I know Charles said he made a few mistakes, but so did I, so it’s a bit of a shame. That one opportunity maybe we missed again but I’m still happy nevertheless.”
Photo credit: McLaren Racing
Later on in the post-qualifying press conference, the McLaren driver, always on the podium in the last three races, talked about how his qualifying performance had surprised him:
“When you realise where Max probably should have been in terms of overall pace, I still think the Red Bulls were probably close to being the quickest. And I didn’t expect to beat Ferrari, so I think we’re in probably the position we expected to be, probably closer to pole than I was expecting.
“I think there was still that little chance to potentially get it today. So similar to Charles, you know, pleasantly surprised to be sitting here in the top three, first of all, but then especially in P2. So a good day for us.
“A little bit surprising, you know, because we know mainly the slow speed is a normally a big weakness for us, and there’s less high speed here comparing to Qatar and things like that. So I’m happy with today,” he concluded highlighting the very impressive weekend his team had had in Qatar with a Sprint race win and two double podium finishes.
Norris also expanded on the mistake that had cost him pole position, admitting the behaviour of his car caught him out heading into turn 11, the corner before the long back straight in the middle sector.
“Turn 11, that’s where it all went wrong, I think the rest… maybe a little bit the last corner. Turn 11, we’ve been struggling a little bit with just consistency of car and braking performance. And the car just turned a bit better than I was expecting.
“And I braked later, but then the car also rotated better. So I was expecting to almost miss the apex a bit more. And I ended up just clipping the kerb. And when you clip the kerb in 11 it’s the run the whole way down the straight that you lose.
“So it’s just a half a tenth mistake initially, because you get on power a bit later. But then because you get on power later, you lose easily another half a tenth or sometimes more all the way down to Turn 12. The rest of the lap, apart from maybe the last corner was, I think, very strong. I was very happy with Turn 1 and Sector 1. Just two places I feel like I probably lost it today,” he concluded, pleased but also left slightly frustrated by his small errors.
