Lando Norris admitted that he hadn't thought it would be possible for him to contend for a place the front two rows of the grid for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix.
Just 24 hours earlier, the McLaren driver had been berating himself for making too many mistakes as he admitted to struggling to get to grips with the handling of the MCL60.
He failed to make it into the top ten in either of Friday's practice sessions, and was only P10 in the rain-hit FP3 suggesting that he would struggle to make it into the final round of qualifying.
"After FP1 we said it was probably one of our worst FP1s of the season in terms of pace," Norris admitted to the media after the end of qualifying today. "So to be sat here today [in P3], I think it's quite a big surprise for all of us.
"I think apart from maybe Bahrain this was our worst Friday of the season," he noted. "On Friday we all sat down and were thinking it was going to be tough to get out of Q1.
"I think the cooler conditions [today], things just started to come our way a little bit."
The turning point seemed to come when he was the first driver out on slicks after this morning's rain showers. "I tend to always be one of the first to try these things for my own feeling and confidence. I tend to do it quite a bit.
"I felt decent. I wouldn't say we felt anywhere near this good," he admitted. "I really wasn't that hopeful, but things just seemed to come together.
"I felt like other people struggled a bit more today than maybe us over-performing or being our true potential," he mused.
"We've not really changed the car that much, so there was nothing which was giving me a lot of confidence or any reasons we were going to be that good today.
"We're still pretty poor in many areas, but high speed [circuits] has always been one of our strengths for years, and slow speed quite the opposite. So I think this layout has helped us - certainly benefitted us a bit more."
Norris ended Q1 in second place, and showed it was no fluke by doing the same again in Q2 before narrowly losing out on the front row start to Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in Q3.
"I definitely wasn't thinking at all to be in the top three today, but I'm very happy to be here," he said. "I'm shocked to be here!
"It's the same car that we've been struggling with," he insisted. "We've not really brought too many big things, just some very small things that obviously help a little bit.
"We've not really brought anything to the car this weekend, the last upgrade we had was Baku with the floor and even that didn't give us a lot of performance, just a different direction to go in."
As for missing out on a front row spot to his former team mate and still good friend Sainz, Norris wasn't too upset - especially as it leaves him on the clean side of the grid for tomorrow's start.
"It’s a home race for Carlos so I thought I’d give him a couple of tenths, you know!" he joked. But he's keenly aware that it will be hard for him to hold on to a podium spot tomorrow.
“It’s really just hold on for dear life,” he told Sky Sports F1. "We didn’t expect to be so good today. If I made one little mistake, I was what? Four, five, six positions back almost.
"I’ll give myself some some credit – a little bit of credit – but at the same time that can easily turn around tomorrow in terms of extra race pace," he said. “Red Bull always take a step forward come Sunday, Aston are always incredible on Sunday race pace.
"But hopefully it’s just another surprise like today, and we’ll see.”
Norris' rookie team mate Oscar Piastri also successfully made it through to the final ten in qualifying, confirming that the MCL60 really had kicked into life when it mattered on Saturday.
"I think we could have been even a little further forward with Oscar,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown said. “He had a great run as well. But we’ll take it. We’re pleased.
"We’re definitely further ahead than we anticipated,” he added. “I think it shows how close Formula 1 is now. We’re almost routinely having teams that are in Q3, and the next week they’re Q1, and vice versa. That’s exciting for the future of F1."
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