Lando Norris was very happy with the outcome of today's qualifying session for the Australian Grand Prix, which will see him start Sunday's race from the second row of the grid.
Norris had looked to be struggling during the preceding practice sessions and lagged his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri in the timesheets on Friday, but turned things around overnight and finished fourth fastest in Q3.
He will actually start tomorrow's race from third as a result of Sergio Perez' grid penalty for impeding, giving Norris a chance to apply pressure on Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz who will be starting on the row ahead.
"Probably better than I was expecting, honestly," was his verdict on today's result. "Two Ferraris, two Red Bulls, I didn’t expect to be ahead of one of them. It was probably even more of a surprise that it was Charles [Leclerc].
"We changed quite a bit going into today and made some good steps forward," he noted. "I think we made a good turnaround. I’d been struggling a little bit all weekend with balance.
"I struggled to put things together and just to get comfortable with the car, knowing how to push on it," he continued. "Normally when I feel like I push, it goes the opposite way of what I want.
"As soon as I got a little bit more comfortable - like now, and through qualifying especially - I felt like I could just unlock more from what I wanted and I could kind of control the car better.
“As soon as I do that I feel like I can get a lot more lap time out of it, but it’s just very difficult to do," he said. “It’s something I’m still struggling with, I would say, and I’ve struggled with a bit this season.
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Starting the race from third is certainly a lot better than the team was doing at this stage last year when Norris was just P13 on the grid. It shows just how much progress McLaren had made in the interim to become 'best of the rest'
"A good showing against Ferrari and Red Bull, so very happy with that," he agreed. "A good day for us as a team, good starting position for tomorrow. It’s a long race with probably multiple pit stops, so something to look forward to.
"I’m happy with where we are and the things we’re doing and what we’re trying to improve," he said. "I know there are just those things missing which I just struggle to replicate and unlock.
"When there are instances of it then there’s a bit of a smile on my face and I can push and I can kind of drive a little bit more how I want, but it’s rare that I kind of get that feeling.
"We all are working on it extremely hard and I think some good things are coming and are in the pipeline, stuff to look forward to," he added. "It’s why I signed at McLaren for so many more years."
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Meanwhile Piastri admitted to "mixed emotions over how qualifying had turned out for him. "Q1 and Q2 looked really strong, and then in Q3 I just didn’t make it happen. A couple of messy laps, which is a bit frustrating.
"I don’t think we’re massively out of position. I think that’s just where we’re at at the moment," he said. "Our race pace looked pretty strong yesterday, so hopefully we can try and use that [in the race].
"Trying to fight the cars ahead of us is going to be tough, but we’ll give it a go," he pledged. "As much as I hate to say it, if we can finish where we start then that would honestly look like a decent result for us.”
"Oscar lost a bit of rhythm in Q3, losing some time, but this didn’t have a big effect in terms of his position on the grid," McLaren team principal Andrea Stella agreed.
"[Both drivers] put together strong laps with good progression across the session," he added. "Praise to the team and the drivers that tuned and optimised the car in every single detail.
"[It] puts both cars in good positions for tomorrow, he added. "We will aim to score good points in the race.”
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