Lando Norris was “pleasantly surprised” by McLaren’s pace in sprint qualifying on Friday at Interlagos but acknowledged that he made “too many mistakes” on his final flyer to beat McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to pole.
Norris comfortably led the field from the outset of the session, setting the fastest time on the medium tyre in the first two segments of qualifying.
The Briton appeared to uphold his momentum after the first round of hot laps on the soft compound rubber in the shootout, but he ultimately aborted his second effort after losing significant time in the middle sector of his final lap.
Piastri clocked in with a 0.029s edge over his teammate although the latter declared himself pleased overall with McLaren’s progress on the day.
“I think it’s a big improvement comparing to where we were earlier today, we were struggling a lot,” commented Norris. “A little bit [of a] surprise that we were so quick today, but a pleasant one, of course.
“It was a good lap. I made too many mistakes in my final lap and just boxed. But a good job as a team. Like I said, I wasn’t expecting it, so a pleasant surprise. I just made too many mistakes on my final lap, that’s all.”
Queried on McLaren’s prospects for Saturday given the team’s strong performance in qualifying, Norris preferred to take a cautious stance.
“Tomorrow is a completely different day so we’ll see,” he said. “We definitely made some good steps forward. I’m happy with today, but we’ll see in the sprint tomorrow.”
When it was pointed out to Norris that championship leader Max Verstappen was fourth in the pecking order, the Briton offered a blunt response to the observation.
“I don’t care. I’m just gonna race, I don’t care about where he qualifies,” he said. “For me, it’s just a focus on my own job. It’s the same question every time, but it doesn’t matter.”
As for Piastri, the Sprint event’s poleman was happy to put together a proper hot lap on his second attempt after his initial effort had fallen short of expectations.
“My first lap didn’t feel amazing and I knew that there was a few places to improve,” he said. “The second lap was was good and the tyres hung on, so I’m very, very happy.”
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