Max Verstappen was beaten, but pole position was not achieved: Lando Norris was able to secure third place on the grid in qualifying for the British Grand Prix and thus had to accept a narrow defeat against the Mercedes duo of pole-setter George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
After the first fast laps in the decisive Q3, Norris was still on course for the first row of the grid, just six thousandths of a second behind Russell, but the McLaren driver made a mistake on his last fast lap. Norris was unable to improve in the first two sectors and hit the grass with his left front wheel in Chapel. Norris aborted the lap and returned to the pits, while Russell and Hamilton improved their times.
“I just went wide in turn 14 and that was it,” was Norris’ sober analysis. Would we have had pole without the mistake? “No, we were already one and a half tenths behind,” Norris has a clear answer here too. “It was super-tight. If I deliver a lap that is good enough, then it is close and a bit of a battle. But they (Mercedes; ed.) seemed super-fast all weekend since FP1.” Overall, Norris says: “I just didn’t deliver today.”
Instead of beating himself up too much for his mistake, Norris prefers to praise Mercedes’ strength instead: “We already knew on Friday that they would be our main opponents and the ones who could take it (pole; ed.) away from us.” Norris also sees the Silver Arrows well positioned for the race. “If you look at last year, Mercedes was probably one of the fastest in the race, if not the fastest. So I expect them to be fast tomorrow. They can take extra care of their front tires,” said the 24-year-old.
Norris is not ruling out the fight for victory. “It will be a good race tomorrow. We are fast. I can fight with George and Lewis,” said the Briton confidently. Especially since Norris expects his MCL38 to be stronger in the race than in qualifying: “We have been fast in the race for the last two months, that is probably one of our strengths. In fact, the race pace was better than the qualifying pace. It is a very different track, a very different layout, but it is still one of our strengths.”
At the same time, Norris warns against jumping to conclusions, given that the training time was compromised by wet conditions. “We only completed a long run of seven or eight laps. That’s not long enough to have an answer as to how our pace compares to Mercedes,” warns the one-time GP winner. Overall, however, Norris says: “We’re right in the middle of things, which is the main thing.”
But Norris could not only have to deal with the two Mercedes cars in the race. Right next to Norris’ McLaren starts Verstappen. After the collision in Spielberg, the situation is not entirely uncritical despite the subsequent de-escalation on both sides. “I’m sure Max will fight against us tomorrow, but I have two other guys to worry about. So I’m not just concerned about Red Bull,” Norris says.
The unstable weather in Silverstone could complicate the battle for victory. Rain is expected again on Sunday. Most recently in Canada, McLaren was able to show good pace in these conditions, but did not always make the best strategic decisions. “We have looked at Canada a lot. So I am sure that tomorrow will be better,” announced Norris.
Unlike Verstappen, Norris could at least receive strategic support from his teammate in the race. Oscar Piastri starts two places behind his teammate from P5. Like Norris, the Australian was unable to improve on his last fast lap. “In my last Q3 run, we went out way too late,” explains Piastri.
“I started my lap about half a second behind Carlos. That was helpful on the straights, not in the corners,” the 23-year-old continued. “There are a few things we need to look at. We had more potential than we showed.”
While Norris and Piastri at least had a chance of pole position in Q3, Sergio Perez was already out in Q1. The Red Bull driver could only secure 19th place after an early spin into the gravel trap. You can read what the Mexican had to say about the incident and the burgeoning rumors about his future in Formula 1 here: