Lando Norris felt that he was in with a strong chance of claiming pole position for this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix in an incident-packed rain-hit qualifying session at Zandvoort.
However the McLaren driver was left blaming himself for missing out after his final flying lap ended up in disappointment, allowing Red Bull's Max Verstappen to claim the prize by half a second.
Norris had been quickest at the end of Friday practice and was in the top four after the first round of qualifying, although he came close to missing the cut in Q2 with the timing of his final run.
He was vying with Verstappen for pole in the final top ten pole shoot-out round, but Verstappen seemed to have the edge as the earlier wet conditions started to dry up - especially after lengthy delays for two red flags.
It left the field with four minutes to make one final run, and Verstappen punched in a time of 1:10.567s while Norris was 0.537s behind - albeit still strong enough to claim P2 on the grid from George Russell and Alex Albon.
Norris had been faster than Verstappen in the first sector on their final runs, but lost time as the lap went on.
“The first half the lap was mega. The second half of the lap was probably one of the worst second halves that I’ve done," Norris told the media in parc ferme afterward. "It peaked very early on."
Asked exactly what it was that had peaked early, Norris replied without hesitation "The driver!" and dismissed suggestions that it had been tyres that had run out of grip.
"The tyres were good until the end, [it was] the driver peaked very early," he admitted with a wry grin. But despite missing out on pole - always an outside bet with Verstappen and Red Bull in their current form - he was pleased with the outcome.
"I’m taking the P2 still, P2 was a good result," he continued. "But I’m very happy. The team have done a great job. It was a chaotic qualifying, but another P2.
"It’s tough but I really enjoy these conditions. I’ve always enjoyed the conditions. It’s when we do well," he said. "I guess in these kinds of conditions, every now and again you hope Max makes a mistake - and he doesn’t! It's frustrating in a little way."
Whether the front row start will allow him the opportunity to get ahead of Verstappen at the start of tomorrow's race remains to be seen. "I’ve got a bit of work to do," he acknowledged. "Not the most comfortable but good enough. I’ll take it."
His team mate Oscar Piastri also looked very much in the running for pole position throughout qualifying, but in the end will start the race from just eighth place on the grid.
“I just didn’t put a good [Q3] lap together,” Piastri told reporters in the paddock. “I think maybe we paid a little bit of the price for not getting enough laps in the dry yesterday, to be honest.
"We were looking good until that, but just didn’t put a lap together when it mattered," he sighed. “I think just lacking a little bit of reference after [crashing in FP2], so a shame to be a bit further back than I would have liked.
"But clearly the car is still quite quick, and we’ll see what we can do in the race," he added. "It’s pretty much how we expected it to be: tight with Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston, Max still a league ahead of everybody.
"Obviously Lando’s just in front of that pack and I’m just at the back of it," he offered. “I wouldn’t say it's a massive surprise>
"[There are] obviously not many straights here and a few corners that play to our strengths, definitely, so I think it’s just where we should be now.”
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