Lando Norris says pole position at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix has not come easy and he is less confident in his race pace than in Mexico, even as teammate Oscar Piastri continues to struggle.
McLaren expected to be strong in Brazil and early signs were promising as the drivers qualified first and third for the sprint, but polesitter Norris had to withstand pressure from Kimi Antonelli to secure victory while Piastri crashed. After taking pole position again on Saturday afternoon, Norris says finishing in tenth place in his first Q3 run shows how challenging the weekend has been so far.
“It was definitely more stressful than I would have liked, especially because we’ve been really fast all weekend,” said Norris. “I just didn’t need that. I don’t really know how it happened. I looked at the data after, quickly, between the two runs, and I braked earlier with less pressure, and still got stuck somehow. So yeah, a little weird. Maybe a little wind or something.”
“That definitely put a little bit more pressure on my last lap, and I saw the others improving – but not much. It was just hard again, just the track conditions, the wind, everything – hard to get a good feeling there. So again, I didn’t know if I was above or below my delta, so I was a little bit stressed. But when I crossed the line and saw the lap, I was pretty happy. And when I didn’t see anyone running faster, I was even happier.”
Looking ahead to the race, Norris says he is less confident than he was two weeks ago when he dominated in Mexico City, given how unpredictable the weekend has been so far at Interlagos.
“I don’t think our race speed will be optimal tomorrow [confidence] I’ve had it. I definitely had more confidence in Mexico,” he said. “I think after this morning, with the pace of Mercedes and the pace of Kimi, it definitely lowered my confidence completely. But we’re still fast. We still have that little advantage in qualifying and I really hope we can continue that in the race tomorrow.
“But the weather is going to change again – I think it should be even colder, which might work out [Mercedes] even more. And the wind is meant to change too. So it’s difficult. Every song is so different. The feeling I have from one song is different from the next and things like that.
“But I just feel like I’m doing a good job. I’m riding well. Before, earlier in the season, I just had weaknesses, and I feel like I still have some here and there, but I’ve reduced them. Now it’s not even a tenth; it’s two-hundredths. So if I can put together the good parts and have the less bad parts, I’m doing really well.”
He was not the only one caught in the Sprint, but for Piastri the consequences were the most severe. Kym Illman/Getty Images
Norris goes into Sunday’s race with a nine-point lead over Piastri due to the sprint result, and from fourth place Piastri admits he was less satisfied with his car’s handling on Saturday.
“I experienced it all and kind of judged what happened [with the crash]And once I’m comfortable with what happened, you just go back to qualifying mode,” Piastri said. “It’s very different from a sprint race or a normal race, just focus on that.
“The qualifying session itself wasn’t easy, a bit of a bizarre weekend where the soft tire just didn’t work for some reason and it’s quite strange to have almost zero improvement in lap time in Q1, Q2 and Q3.
“It just feels like things aren’t going that easy at the moment. Yesterday I was quite confident in the car, today it felt like it was a bit more difficult for everyone and I was just struggling to get the most out of the car.
“I think in Austin and Mexico there were obviously some things to learn, obviously some things that I wasn’t naturally that comfortable with and had to adapt to. This weekend, especially yesterday, things felt a lot more normal – from the first practice lap I felt comfortable, the lap time came easily.
“Today was a bit more difficult in terms of conditions and trying to get the most out of it, but I don’t think there have been the same problems this weekend. I still have the belief that I can go out and win races and win the championship, but things are not going as easily as I would like at the moment.”
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