Lando Norris acknowledges that by securing pole position for the sprint race, he has dealt the first blow of the weekend to title rivals Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. However, he is not confident about winning on Saturday, as he explained after the sprint qualifying. “It was tougher than I thought,” he said.
Norris was exceptionally strong on Friday, and his pole position was well-deserved. It became clear that his McLaren, and that of teammate Piastri, is performing exceptionally well in Brazil. “However, the competition is close in terms of speed. Moreover, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed, it was even tougher than in Mexico, for example. The weekend is still long, a lot can happen.”
The weather forecast for Saturday is a significant reason why Norris, the leader in the fight for the world title, is not counting his chickens before they hatch for the sprint race. “The track is beautiful, but also challenging with the bumps and the elevation changes. And now there’s also rain forecasted and strong winds. That makes it difficult to predict how the sprint race will unfold. And the qualifying afterwards. But the start is good, that’s for sure.”
