After having a dismal start to his Sprint Race earlier in the day, falling to P7 in Turn 2 after starting P1, Lando Norris qualified P4 for the Chinese Grand Prix, the main race on Sunday.
The first lap on the board by the McLaren driver in qualifying was a 1.36.528. By the end of Q3, however, he put in 1:34.165, just five tenths behind the pole lap of Max Verstappen, who clocked a 1:33.660.
Norris firmly believed to be ahead of both the Ferraris is an advantage, while also emphasising that being behind Red Bulls was expected.
The British driver was very consistent, placing P3, P5 and P4 in the 3 segments of qualifying.
“To be ahead of two Ferraris is always a positive thing, to be behind two Red Bulls is not a surprise at all — they, clearly, are extremely strong, like they showed in the race. Red Bull are [in] another league here.”
Norris adamantly maintained that the day was, overall, a positive one — at least as far as the McLaren’s pace is concerned.
However, he remained realistic with his approach to tomorrow’s Grand Prix, claiming that McLaren’s race is not with Ferrari, but rather with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who qualified P3.
“But I think we had a positive day for us in terms of pace — buys us a bit of leeway on the Ferraris, but more than likely they’ll be overtaking us tomorrow.
“I think we’re in a good position. I think our battle will be with Aston and probably with the Mercedes at some point — we’ll see.”
The 24-year-old further mentioned that McLaren are in the same bracket of race pace with Aston Martin and Mercedes. He emphasized Red Bull’s clear dominance on the rest of the field, with Ferrari second fastest.
“But today, I think, was a good day. Even with what happened this morning, I think our pace was not bad. I think, comparing to Mercedes, comparing to Aston — we’re in a similar boat.
“It’s just Red Bull are a mile ahead and Ferrari are another big chunk ahead of us. With everyone else, I think, we’re there or there abouts, and should be a good race.”
When asked whether he believed in a chance for podium, Norris quickly denied it.
“Red Bulls will probably lap everyone, multiple times,” joked Norris. “Ferrari, I think, will not be as quick as them— they’ll be close enough. I think they’re out of our league, as soon as they had clean air this morning — it was quite easy for them to pull away.”
The McLaren driver also articulated that the car performace was better than expected in low fuel, while lamenting the struggles in race pace performance.
“We’ve done a better job than we thought in low fuel, but definitely in high fuel like everything that we expect happened, and I think that’s why we struggle so much.”
Ultimately, Norris has faith that a solid points haul will be available for the Woking-based team as Oscar Piastri backed him up with P5.
“We can still have a good race, we can still fight for some good points.”
