Lando Norris: “We made a good amount of improvement from FP3 into qualifying”

Lando Norris was happy with the outcome of Qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, with the McLaren F1 Team driver pleased to end sixth on the grid at the Losail International Circuit.

Norris believed McLaren made good progress with the car between final practice on Saturday afternoon and Qualifying under the floodlights, and he rewarded the team with a place on the third row of the grid alongside Fernando Alonso.

The only downside for Norris was the fact he made it into Q3 on the soft compound tyre, but he will be looking to make the most of that to score good points for the team and hopefully help close the gap to Scuderia Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.

“Very happy with today,” said Norris.  “We made a good amount of improvement from FP3 into qualifying and we weren’t expecting P6.

“I’m definitely pleased with that, especially because it wasn’t an easy P6, but it was done with probably one of the best laps I’ve done in qualifying for quite a long time. I’m satisfied with my job and what we did as a team as well. That helped us out today. So, a positive day overall.

“We didn’t get through on the Medium tyre, which is the only negative – that’s going to make our life a little more tricky than we want tomorrow, but we still have a good opportunity to score some solid points.”

“I just struggled to find those last few tenths” – Daniel Ricciardo

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q2, with the Australian admitting to struggling to find the few extra tenths of a second that Norris was able to extract from the car.

Ricciardo will start down in fourteenth after failing to find enough speed in his MCL35M to make it into the top ten, and he felt he was able to gain time in one corner only to lose it again in the next.

“Obviously not a great session in terms of position,” said Ricciardo.  “I’d have loved to have been more competitive, but I just struggled to find those last few tenths.

“It felt like if I tried to find it, I’d gain a little bit here, but lose it in the next part of the corner. I got to a little bit of a stalemate with where I could improve. So, still some things to look at and work on and see where the time is.

“I think it’s just a little bit everywhere. No big mistakes or errors, just lacking that extra half-a-tenth in some corners. We’ll try to do something tomorrow from where we are. We’ve got strategy choice, but obviously we’re quite a long way out. We’ll see what we can come up with tonight.”

Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q2 in Qatar – Credit: McLaren F1 Team