Lando Norris was left feeling “happy and confident” about his prospects for the Hungarian Grand Prix after taking pole position in an eventful qualifying session, with the McLaren driver beating team mate Oscar Piastri by just 0.022s.
Having set an impressive provisional pole lap of 1m 15.227s during the first runs of Q3, the final segment of qualifying was interrupted when Yuki Tsunoda suffered a crash in the RB. When it was resumed with just over two minutes left on the clock – amid changing weather conditions – most of the field were unable to improve and Norris remained on top.
Reflecting on the outcome afterwards, Norris commented: “[I’m ] very, very happy. Not an easy qualifying, difficult conditions, but always ending up on top is the best part of it also. Happy, especially for the team, a one-two is even better to see, so congrats to the team.”
Asked if the result had given the team an increased confidence heading into Sunday, the Briton answered: “It does, but we've already got confidence so it's not like we need a lot more of it, or we're searching for it.
“We've come into this weekend and the last few happy and confident we can do a good job, and we've got a good car to fight for pole and that's exactly what we did today. So, like I said, a great job by the team; we've been improving every weekend, so to end up on pole today is sweet.”
Norris was bullish about the squad’s potential race pace, adding: “I mean, we're in the best position for whatever the conditions throw at us so I'm looking forward to it – two cars on the front row, we can control it from there so as long as we stay where we are, we'll be happy.”
And when pushed on whether he is aiming to win, Norris stated: “I mean, I'm expecting to, so if I don't, it's not been a good day. The car's doing well, I feel like I'm driving well, so it's obvious what the aim is for tomorrow.”
Piastri was similarly pleased with McLaren’s performance, but acknowledged that there was a bit of disappointment at being so close to pole himself.“It's cool to be here, especially when you get a result like this,” the Australian explained. “I think the first one-two in qualifying for McLaren for a very long time, so very happy. Of course when I missed out by two hundredths, you think of all the little things you can do a bit better.“But no, an amazing result for the team. We had a bit of a tricky day on my side yesterday, so it was nice to bounce back this morning, and then obviously this afternoon in quali. It wasn't easy, a lot of decisions on the fly and to end up with both cars on the front row is an amazing result.”
While the 23-year-old is hoping to put himself into P1 come race day, he has also stressed that – with the constructors’ championship potentially at stake – neither he or Norris will do anything silly.
“Of course, I want to get into the lead but we have both cars on the front row, we've got a big task ahead of us trying to win this championship as a team and we'll be smart,” Piastri added.
“We've got a very quick car, it's been working extremely well this weekend. We want to keep it one-two, and I think we'll fight amongst ourselves for who gets one.”
While there was still time on the clock after the Yuki Tsunoda crashed in Q3 bringing out another Red Flag, Max Verstappen opted to get out of the car and settle for third on the grid in tomorrow's race.
"I was a bit frustrated we ended up with P3 today, but showing emotion shows I really care about our performance and doing well," said Verstappen. "The long runs we did in the practice session today have been okay; we have been working throughout the weekend to find the right balance within the car but we still have work to do and need to be realistic. When the session had a red flag in Q3, we had used a new set of tyres already so there was no point in going out again as we wouldn’t have improved on our lap time. I was hoping for a bit more from qualifying but we can assess and see what we can do to get the best out of the car a bit better and improve the pace. Today we ultimately didn’t optimise our performance: we will work with the Team to see what we can do ahead of tomorrow and make sure we have a better race day. I’m glad Checo is okay and it was a shame he crashed as he was having a decent weekend up until that point. It should be a bit warmer tomorrow as well and we see what the race brings."