Lando Norris was still in disbelief after his pole in Madrid. The McLaren driver reveals he nearly hit the wall in the last corner of his exceptional lap.
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Lando Norris had to take every risk to snatch the pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix from Kimi Antonelli. Long absent from the fight for first place during qualifying, the Briton delivered an exceptional final lap to beat the championship leader by only 11 thousandths.
A performance that even surprised the main protagonist. Norris believes he probably delivered one of the best laps of his entire Formula 1 career, even though it could very easily have ended in the wall. In the last corner of the Madring, the McLaren driver indeed thought for a few moments that he had just exceeded the limit.
Norris himself surprised by his pole
Nothing really suggested that Norris would finish qualifying on top. Fifth in Q1 then only seventh in Q2, the reigning world champion seemed slightly behind Mercedes, Ferrari, and Max Verstappen.
The situation had hardly changed after the first attempt in Q3. Lewis Hamilton then held the provisional pole ahead of Antonelli, while Norris remained behind the main favorites. But everything suddenly came together on his final lap.
“I’m in shock. I’m even a bit surprised to be here now. My God, it was probably one of the best laps I’ve ever done in my entire career.”
Moments earlier, Norris had already told the radio that this lap might be his best. The timer quickly proved him right: 1’31″824, just 0″011 better than Antonelli.
“Everything came together perfectly”
For Norris, the difference was not necessarily made by a setup change or a sudden discovery of performance. The Briton knew what he wanted from his McLaren but had not yet managed to perfectly assemble all the elements of a lap on this particularly demanding circuit.
“I’m very happy and very proud, especially for the whole team. It was one of those laps where everything came together perfectly.”
The main difficulty was to precisely reproduce what he had in mind while maintaining enough relaxation behind the wheel.
“I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, but my brain still had to allow me to do it on this last lap. Almost everything worked perfectly.”
The result even surprised Norris when he saw his time.
“It’s one of those laps where you look at the time at the end and say: ‘Damn, that was really good!'”
Norris had to force himself to stay relaxed
The Madring hardly forgives any mistakes. The walls are very close in several sectors and the high speeds make any approximation potentially costly, as Lewis Hamilton and Oliver Bearman had already discovered a few hours earlier during EL3.
Norris admits that this proximity to the barriers had prevented him from driving as naturally as he would have liked during much of qualifying. For his final attempt, he therefore tried to do exactly the opposite: reduce tension and let his driving become more instinctive.
Read more Charles Leclerc warns before qualifying in Madrid: «Overtaking will be very rare»
“The adrenaline was very high on this last lap. You just had to manage to relax and let things come. It’s easy to get tense here because many walls come very quickly.”
The Briton was nevertheless confident in his car. His main problem came more from his own driving than from the behavior of the MCL40.
“I felt pretty confident and the car was working well. But I just wasn’t doing what I wanted and I wasn’t relaxed enough. Before the last lap, I took a deep breath and everything came together.”
“In the last corner, I thought I was in the wall”
It was nevertheless very close to this exceptional lap turning into a disaster. Norris particularly attacked in the last corner, precisely where Hamilton had sent his Ferrari into the barriers during EL3.
For a brief moment, the McLaren driver was convinced he would also end up in the wall and give his mechanics several more hours of work.
“The lap was almost perfect, but in the last corner, I thought I was going to end up in the wall and that the guys would have to fix the car tonight.”
He even believes there was still a small margin for improvement despite his spectacular time.
“So it could have been slightly better, but despite everything, it’s one of the best laps I’ve done. Everything I wanted to achieve, I managed to do.”
A 19th pole that will remain special
This performance gives Norris the 19th pole position of his career and his third of the season. It comes especially after a weekend that had started very badly, since his gearbox problem on Friday had deprived him of all of EL2 and forced him to catch up with the data collected by Oscar Piastri.
“It’s one of those moments where you enter that state where everything becomes natural. It gave me a huge smile, so I’m happy.”
This pole could especially have considerable importance on Sunday. Several drivers, including Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso, have already warned that overtaking opportunities should be particularly limited on the Madring.
Norris will therefore start from the best possible position after a lap he already considers one of the most accomplished of his career. Eleven thousandths were enough to beat Antonelli, but a few extra centimeters in the last corner could have turned his historic pole into a new accident against the Madring barriers.
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