Norris: “A lot of the session was really bad”

The disappointing qualifying The home climate and the special livery adopted for the British Grand Prix seemed to be the basis for opening this weekend in the best possible way with the Sprint qualifying at Silverstone, which instead reserved an unsatisfactory result for both McLaren drivers. In a session that ended with Sir Lewis Hamilton’s pole position, world champion Lando Norris did not go beyond 6th place, followed by his teammate Oscar Piastri. The problem solved at the last minute What turned a good part of Sprint qualifying into a nightmare for the #1 from Woking was a problem with the front brake air intake, repaired in time for SQ3. However, despite the great work of the mechanics in the pits, the rest of qualifying hindered Norris in the fight with rival teams such as Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull: “It penalized me much more than I thought, because we only managed to repair it for the last lap – he commented referring to the fault – the guys did a good job to fix it for the last attempt. The car was completely different and definitely better”. “For a lot of the session it was really bad. Luckily we managed to fix it, and it felt like a completely different car. When I found the feeling for the last lap, I realized that we could have pushed a lot more. It was unfortunate, but the pace was there. Considering the cars we have around us, we could potentially compete with Red Bull. George’s Mercedes is clearly a lot faster. In the end I felt happier. I just need to understand a few things and see what we can improve tomorrow.” A final result which, at the same time, does not represent a surprise for Oscar Piastri, as the Australian confirmed at the end of qualifying: “I think after free practice we looked quite slow, so it’s more or less where we expected. To be honest, we were probably closer to the leading group behind Kimi and Lewis, so yes, a difficult day, to be honest, but we will try to improve for tomorrow. The gap to Verstappen and Leclerc has improved in terms of performance, but not as much as we thought it would be useful, unfortunately. I feel like I gave my all today, but we just didn’t have the pace, so, yes, a bit of a shame, but we’ll try again tomorrow,” he concluded.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-03 18:10:00