“One of the best Lando Norris laps ever”– Lando Norris’ judgement on Monaco Grand Prix qualifying that gave him a P5 grid start.
Lando Norris has progressed immensely this year and is giving a huge challenge to Ferrari in the 3rd place battle. In Monaco, while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q2, Norris kept the McLaren flag flying high.
According to the Briton, he had one of the best Lando Norris laps ever, as he obtained a P5 behind two Mercedes and one Red Bull and Mercedes each.
“The thing that makes it special here is that Monaco is such a difficult track to put it all together and such a difficult track to make sure you are using every millimetre of the track because it all adds up at the end of the lap,” said Norris.
“[It was] one of the best Lando Norris laps ever. There have been a few, I guess, ones that I have been happy with over the past few years, like Abu Dhabi last year at the end of the season, Imola this year, apart from going off the track, and this one.
“I did good laps in Q1, Q2. I always felt comfortable and always executed a good lap by the end but definitely, that final lap was the best lap altogether and I don’t think there was any corner on the track I wasn’t fractionally better than my previous laps.”
Top 3 in the reach
Norris ended 0.274secs behind pole-sitter Charles Leclerc but was only a 0.044s gap separated second to fifth place drivers Max Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz and Norris. Thus, Norris thinks that the top 3 is within his reach.
“I think from my side, P5 was as good as we could do today,” added Norris. “It just happens that we were just two-tenths off and when you think of two-tenths it is basically nothing but it is the way it is.”
“It’s motivating for the team anyway, to try to make the car two-tenths quicker in one lap and then we could be there,” concluded Norris. We would have agreed with Norris on any other track, but this is Monaco; over here, overtaking is a huge pain.
Nevertheless, an exciting race in Monaco would be incredible, and it would be a huge achievement for McLaren to grab their second podium so soon into the season.
