Lando Norris was disappointed to narrowly miss out on pole position for Sunday's United States Grand Prix, blaming a mistake for not overhauling Charles Leclerc for the top spot in the final moments of Friday's qualifying session.
The McLaren driver had come into this weekend suggesting that the team's recent run of form would probably hit a bit of a speed bump this weekend and that they would struggle to keep up with Ferrari and Mercedes, let alone Red Bull.
That seemed to be borne out by a lacklustre performance in the one and only practice session on Friday when Norris was only 15th, and his team mate Oscar Piastri down in P18.
However it was a different story in qualifying where he was runner-up to Leclerc in Q1 by just 0.019s, and went on to secure a front row spot alongside the Ferrari in the final top ten pole shootout round.
“I'm happy, it's been a very good day,” declared Norris when speaking to the media in parc ferme afterwards. “Probably didn't expect to be as quick as we were, so it was a pleasant surprise for the whole team.
“A little bit surprising because we know mainly the slow speeds are normally a big weakness for us, and there’s less high speed here comparing to Qatar and things like that.
“I didn't make as many mistakes as I made last [race weekend], which is a good thing," he continued. "But I thought we had it today, I think there was enough in it to get pole. I know Charles said he made a few mistakes, but so did I.
"“If I just did a good lap, maybe that could have been pole,” he mused. Turn 11 is where it all went wrong, and maybe a little bit the last corner.
“I was expecting to almost miss the apex a bit more and I ended up just clipping the kerb. 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.
"Just a difficult circuit," he told Sky Sports F1. "Bumpy and low grip in certain areas, easy to make a lot of mistakes. I think pole was in it today, though, so I could be that little bit happier.
“It's a bit of a shame, that one opportunity we missed again, but I'm happy nevertheless," he insisted. "I’m taking P2 for now!"
"We’re almost in the best position you can have for a Sunday, we’re in a nice way at the minute, nice rhythm, and if we can do the same tomorrow [in the Sprint] and Sunday then it’ll be perfect.”
Despite starting on the front row next to Leclerc, Norris admitted that he was pretty sure that Max Verstappen would still end up claiming victory in the Grand Prix even though the Red Bull ended up slipping to P6 in qualifying.
“Charles is normally a good starter to get started to be honest," Norris said when asked if he could realistically steal a victory this weekend. "It's going to be difficult to get him off the line.
"Ferrari are very quick, Mercedes are very quick and especially on long runs they’re always very quick," he continued. "So it’s not going to be an easy one.
“And then Max is pretty much guaranteed to come through and probably win again!" he laughed. "But we’ll do our best until that happens.
“When you realise where Max probably should have been in terms of overall pace, I still think the Red Bull is probably close to being the quickest,” he said. “I didn’t expect to beat Ferrari, so I think we’re in probably the position we expected to be."
Meanwhile Piastri will line up in tenth place for Sunday's race. “To be honest just wasn’t the best qualifying from myself,” he admitted. “Some decent laps but not enough. My last lap in Q3 was quite poor.
"But clearly the car has got some pace in it," he pointed out. "I just didn’t get it together. We’ll try again tomorrow.
"The pace we have is pretty solid, so if we leave out the mistakes we should be able to get a better result in the Sprint Shootout tomorrow.” Piastri started the last Sprint in Qatar from pole, and went on to win..
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