‘A little bit disappointing to be P2’ – Norris reacts to being beaten to Zandvoort Sprint pole

Lando Norris conceded that it was “a little bit disappointing” to miss out on pole position during Sprint Qualifying in Zandvoort, but was more than happy to focus on the positives of another strong performance for McLaren.

The Briton converted pole into victory last time out in Hungary, and with his team sporting new upgrades this weekend, there was optimism that he might be able to replicate the achievement for the Sprint.

He got off to a fantastic start, finishing P2 behind Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri in SQ1 and SQ2 respectively before he claimed the provisional top spot in the final stage of Sprint Qualifying with a time of 1m 11.608s.

Mercedes’ George Russell proved to be the only driver who could improve upon his lap, finding a slim advantage of 0.041s to demote Norris to P2 once again.

When he was informed of how tight the gap was after the session, Norris replied: “Oh, okay. Still something! I think [I’m] reasonably happy. It’s still a good position.

“It was a reasonable lap, and considering how close it was, it easily could have been first, it easily could have been fourth or fifth. A good [Sprint] Qualifying.

“Close between all the teams, which is exactly what we expected. But yeah, just of course, a little bit disappointing to be P2 instead of P1.”

The result nevertheless suggests that McLaren’s pace at the Hungaroring wasn’t a one-off as they were firmly in the mix with Mercedes and Ferrari throughout Friday’s running in the Netherlands, giving Norris hope that they can extract even more over the remaining sessions.

“I think just the step onto the soft, there was probably a little bit more grip that I didn’t quite get out of it, from the medium to the soft for SQ3,” he explained. “I think maybe I could have just pushed it a little bit more, but I think otherwise the car has been performing, and looks like it’s continued its strong performance from Budapest.

“Plenty of positives, and hopefully that just continues for the rest of the weekend. There are some things I can work on, some things we can maybe get out of the car for tomorrow’s Qualifying. We’ve started the weekend strong, so I’m happy with that.”

His team mate Piastri impressed on the medium tyres in SQ2 but couldn’t quite make the top three in the final shoot-out, joining Norris in shifting blame onto the tricky switch to the soft compound.

His effort of 1m 11.66s meant he ultimately qualified fourth for the Sprint, but was only 0.044s away from Leclerc and 0.058s off the time that earned Norris a spot on the front row.

“I think just the soft lap wasn’t quite as good,” Piastri admitted. “I feel like it’s often the case this year that you put the soft tyre on and it’s not quite as nice as the balance you have on the medium.

“Compared to where I was this morning in practice, I’m much happier. We changed a few things, and I was a lot happier. I think that’s the positives, the progress from this morning. Obviously it was pretty close, and I feel like with a better lap maybe we could have had pole, but I’m learning and improving, so that’s the most important thing.

“I think it’s going to be tight between us, Ferrari and Mercedes, by the looks of things. It’s going to be all about filling in those last little details and gaps, and seeing what we can do.”