“I wasn’t very confident”– Lando Norris opens about his qualifying experience in Russia after he snatches the pole position at the last moment.
After a spectacular performance in Monza, Lando Norris continues his impressive run in Russia as he bags his maiden pole position in qualifying.
Norris could not comprehend the magnitude of his performance as he snubbed the Mercedes duo from achieving their target since they intended to make the most out of Max Verstappen’s engine penalty.
“Oh boy, it feels amazing. I don’t know what to say,” Norris reflected after qualifying. It was quite a manic session, but it was going well and obviously, we made the decision, in the end, to go to slicks.”
“I don’t know, you never think you’re going to get a pole until you get it, and now I’ve managed to do it, so yeah, I’m thrilled. It was tricky, you know, because it was that crossover section [to slicks], He added on the track conditions.
“And the lap before I was like two seconds down, and I wasn’t very confident that we were going to improve on the previous lap. I kept the tyres warm and prepared the final lap.”
“I risked quite a bit, I’m going to admit, and it paid off, so I’m a happy boy!” he added. If McLaren’s pole was impressive, Carlos Sainz and George Russell finished in P2 and P3, respectively, giving an all unexpected qualifying top-3.
Didn’t expect this at all after Monza
McLaren had their perfect record in Monza, achieving P1 and 2, but Norris didn’t expect that their form would even extend going to Russia, but the weather conditions gave him a good opportunity.
“I guess coming off of Monza, it’s not something we really expected, but these kind of conditions are when we can take opportunities, and that’s exactly what we did today,” he commented.
“Especially after Monza, this is an awesome way to start, and hopefully we can continue it again tomorrow.”
