Lando Norris was beaming after a strong day at the Red Bull Ring, which included McLaren's first chance to try out a welter of long planned new upgrade components for the MCL60.
The car is sporting a reprofiled floor, floor edges, sidepods, engine cover and diffuser this weekend, and Norris said that they felt good right from the moment he climbed into the cockpit at the Red Bull Ring today.
“As soon as we put the car down, things were working I think as they were meant to be, which is always a good sign,” he reported after the end of the day's track action.
“I’m super happy with P4, it was one of the best qualifying sessions of the season," he said "I had a lot of confidence and was chipping away through qualifying, so I’m happy.
"I have to say a big thanks to the team for getting all the new bits here, because we wouldn’t be P4 if we didn’t have that. I’m super happy and it’s a good one for the team.
"The team did an awesome job on getting the upgrades ready for this race and they did a great job today to get us there."
Norris will start alongside former team mate Carlos Sainz on the second row of the grid, and felt that he could have been ahead of the Ferrari if not for a minor mistake on his final lap in Q3.
"I could’ve had a little bit more as I made a small mistake in the last corner, which likely cost me P3, so I am a little bit frustrated. But at the same time, I’m taking a P4 every day.
“I guess as a driver, if you don’t put the perfect lap together when it could have been something that little bit more - which would be a P3 - you just wish you could put it together.
"It’s just I messed up my lap a bit," he said. “I should have had Carlos, but it’s just a should have. I’m still very happy: P4 is still very good for us, especially for a main quali.
“It was good fun," he continued. "Tricky, because basically every single corner you can get a track limits [penalty]. Every corner you want to push more, but you have to be so careful at the same time.
“But the car has been working very well," he added. "I’m very happy. I really am, to be honest."
As well as Sunday's race, Norris will also have a chance to shine with another showdown qualifying on Saturday ahead of the sprint race in the afternoon.
"I’m happy, we’re in a good position for Sunday and we’ll try to do the same again tomorrow," he said.
Unfortunately Norris' team mate Oscar Piastri was left short of transferring to the final round of qualifying after having a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.
"It’s a bit of a shame as I would have been in Q3 without the lap deletion," he sighed. "But the pace was very encouraging for both myself and Lando, the new upgrade is looking good."
“Today feels a little bittersweet," added team principal Andrea Stella. "From a car performance point of view we should have had two cars in Q3, but unfortunately Oscar had a lap time deleted.
"Lando’s performance with the upgraded car was encouraging, as he was consistently near the top of each session. But we will learn more over the weekend, especially in terms of race pace."
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