Lando Norris says ideal conditions could make things easy for him in Saturday’s sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but admits complicated weather forecasts could shake things up.
McLaren looked the class of the field in FP1 but faced a tougher battle than expected in sprint qualifying, with Norris narrowly beating Kimi Antonelli to pole by 0.097 seconds. The championship leader admits it wasn’t his best performance, but he achieved his first goal on Saturday morning: starting from the front.
“Not at my best, but good enough today,” said Norris. “I struggled a bit more with it in FP1. It’s a difficult track. It’s a great track to drive, but it’s easy to get the timing wrong, the bumps wrong. I still had a few little mistakes here and there on my last lap, but still fast enough.”
“I think it’s always difficult when you go on the soft tyre. Are you pushing 20% more? 10%? 5%? Are you actually going back a bit? But a lap good enough for pole, so I’m very happy.”
With the weather forecast including a cyclone warning for Friday evening into Saturday morning, the Sprint could be a wet race, bringing added unpredictability.
“Of course we have to prepare for both [dry and wet] conditions,” said Norris. “I expect this morning to be heavy rain and incredibly windy at the same time. So let’s wait and see what will happen.
“In dry conditions I think the car performs well. Not nice enough that I’m happy with everything. I still have a few things I can maybe improve for qualifying tomorrow, but the sprint race, let’s see. If I can cruise to victory, that would be great.”
For Piastri, third on the grid behind Antonelli was not ideal, but it represents a step up in performance from the last two races, and the Australian sees the start to the weekend at Interlagos as positive.
“The soft one was just a little different than I expected,” Piastri said. “Some big moments on my first lap – that was a bit of a shame, but in the end I felt much happier today than I have in recent weeks.
“The training went very well. I think a number of things changed during the sprint qualifying. That took some getting used to, but in the end I was quite satisfied. I would have liked a bit more, but we can certainly fight with what we have. And of course there are many more points on Sunday.”
“It’s going to be an interesting day. Let’s see what the weather is like. But I’ll try to take whatever opportunities there are. I think the pace in the car today was really good, so hopefully that translates to whatever we get.”
Antonelli left a bit on the table during his final run, but still came away satisfied. Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Antonelli’s performance turned heads as the rookie secured another front-row start at a sprint weekend, but the Italian was unhappy with his final lap as he aimed for pole.
“It was a good session overall,” said Antonelli. “I think SQ1 was a bit messy, a bit tricky with the traffic. But then we got into our rhythm. The soft lap was a bit of a shame there in the penultimate sector. But still a decent lap. P2 for tomorrow, so a lot to fight for.”
“We will have to be careful with the wind. It will change quite a bit, so tomorrow we expect very different conditions than today. Moreover, the weather will be a bit uncertain. But we will try to be prepared for everything.”
However, it was a tough qualifying session for the third championship candidate. Max Verstappen was only sixth fastest and will still have to make up ground if he wants to limit the damage to the two McLaren drivers.
“A lot of vibrations in the car, just a lot of driving problems,” said Verstappen. “So not what we want. But besides that, I also think we just don’t have any grip. The middle sector is terrible. I just can’t get the car to turn, but at the same time I can’t really rely on the rear either. So yes, for us it’s just very bad, I would say.”
“Don’t know [if rain would help]. We’ll find out, right? I mean, I think it’s very clear that we’re missing something. And I don’t expect that it will suddenly be miles better on wet roads. But we will see tomorrow.”
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