Lando Norris says that on Friday he was never worried about the gap of Oscar Piastri in the Belgian Grand Prix after he had beaten his frustrated teammate to the pole position in Saturday’s qualification.
Piastri was the fastest in Sprint qualification with almost half a second above Max Verstappen and 0.6s above Norris, with a strong performance at Spa-Francorchamps. However, it was Norris who went back to take pole on Saturday afternoon, beat Piastri with slightly less than 0.1s, and he says that too much had been made of the gap on Friday.
“Everyone was quite worried after yesterday,” said Norris. “I wasn’t even that far away. It was only a few small problems we had, so I had it confident after yesterday and I made sure that I came in today. It’s nice to see that I could come to the top again.
“Three tenths are just slipstream and are not out of the Pitlane first … nothing to worry about. People like to find many things on, but no, I felt good. The car flown all weekend.
“Oscar did well the whole weekend, so we push each other a lot. It is difficult because you see a bit where you are strengths and weaknesses … and you learn from each other quickly. It is a good but tough fight that we have at the moment.”
After he had been released from his teammate at the start of the weekend so far, Piastri remained a mistake in Q3 that he says he took a lot of round time and ended his hope to take a pole.
“I think [enough time for pole was lost]Yes, “said Piastri.” The round up to that moment was strong, but it doesn’t really matter if you could have done it. I didn’t do it. A bit disappointing. I think both laps in Q3 were a bit like that, but that’s how it goes sometimes. A bit of a shame, but the car was great again. I felt that I was in a fairly good current, just didn’t happen completely in the second round.
“To be honest, it felt very much on each other [to Friday]. You get a few more laps on softs, you explore the limits a little more, you push the limit a little more, maybe, and today that is probably, but it still felt very good. I had just as much confidence as yesterday, so it was certainly not. “
Piastri repeated Norris’s comments that the McLaren drivers have a difficult situation when they can see each other’s data.
“I think we are a good teammate and we learn a lot from each other every weekend,” he said. “That is what makes us such a good team, but it also makes it difficult if you try to fight each other. I feel that I did well today; just not completely executed when it mattered.”
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