Andrea Stella praised Lando Norris’s incredible lap in Madrid, all the more impressive as the Brit lost three tenths in the last corner.
Could Lando Norris have crushed the competition during the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying? The Brit secured pole position at the Madrid circuit by just 11 thousandths ahead of Kimi Antonelli, but McLaren reveals that his final lap could have been even significantly faster.
Andrea Stella indeed believes that his driver lost about three tenths in the last corner, precisely where Norris himself admitted he thought he was going to hit the wall. Despite this costly mistake, the reigning world champion kept enough of a lead to claim his third pole of the season, also his third in the last four Grands Prix.
“It was a masterpiece”
However, Norris had not dominated qualifying until then. McLaren had shown interesting potential throughout the weekend, but the Brit was still struggling to put together all the necessary elements to fully exploit his MCL40.
Everything finally changed during his last attempt in Q3. Norris posted a time of 1’31″824 to beat Antonelli by only 0″011 and push Max Verstappen back to 0″140. A performance that particularly impressed Stella.
“It was a masterpiece. We saw throughout the weekend that when we managed to put everything together, we were not far from the best cars.”
The McLaren director especially highlights the progress made over the weekend.
“We advanced step by step to try to exploit all the available performance. Lando only truly achieved this on his last attempt in Q3.”
Norris loses three tenths in the last corner
The most impressive thing remains what Norris could have accomplished without his final mistake. While he was on track for an even faster time, the Brit misjudged the last corner and lost about three tenths according to McLaren’s data.
Norris had already explained after the session that he thought he was going to hit the wall at that spot. He ultimately managed to keep control of his car and, despite the lost time, to maintain an 11-thousandth lead over Antonelli.
“In the last corner, he made a mistake that cost him three tenths. It was an incredible lap, probably one of the best of his life up to that last corner.”
For Stella, this performance mainly shows that Norris is now able to identify and exploit the limit of his McLaren at the decisive moment.
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“He understood what the car could offer him. We are obviously very happy with this pole position.”
A few tenths separate pole from seventh place
Norris’s performance contrasts sharply with the difficulties faced by Oscar Piastri. The Australian never managed to find the same rhythm and finished only seventh, nearly half a second behind his teammate.
But Stella refuses to see this necessarily as a huge performance gap between the two drivers. The grid is so tight in Madrid that a few tenths are enough to lose several positions.
“At the same time, the grid is so tight that if you lose a few tenths, like Oscar with the second McLaren, you end up seventh.”
Piastri himself admitted to having a “catastrophic” last lap, after losing his rhythm from the first corner. Norris, on the contrary, managed to deliver his best performance when the pressure was highest.
McLaren fixed one of the weaknesses of the MCL40
This pole is also an important satisfaction for McLaren on the technical side. Since the start of the season, the MCL40 has struggled particularly in slow corners, where Norris and Piastri regularly lack confidence under braking and at corner entry.
The problem was still visible at the start of the Madrid weekend. The McLaren was naturally quick in the flowing and fast sections, but much less convincing in the slow parts. The team progressively adjusted its settings to improve the car’s behavior.
“In several previous races, we talked about our performance in slow corners. From the start of the weekend, we saw that the car was naturally quick in the fast and flowing sections.”
The priority was then to restore enough confidence to the drivers in the areas where the MCL40 was most delicate.
“At low speed, the drivers did not feel confident enough to brake and place the car in the corners. So we evolved the settings and the driving style to give them more confidence, to the point of finishing qualifying with the best first sector.”
A development that confirms the progress made by McLaren since the major update introduced in Hungary. Norris is the main beneficiary: with three poles in the last four races and two consecutive wins before Madrid, the Brit now establishes himself as one of the hottest drivers on the grid.
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