My lap before the Sainz crash was better

Lando Norris confidently secured his sixth pole position in the Formula 1 qualifying in Singapore 2024. The McLaren driver was two tenths faster than his World Championship rival Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and thus started the Grand Prix on Sunday directly ahead of the Dutchman (follow the live ticker here).

Q3 was a challenge for everyone in the end, because Carlos Sainz's accident left all drivers with just one lap to set a time – only Oscar Piastri and Nico Hülkenberg already had one lap on the clock.

“It was difficult,” Norris summed up his qualifying. “I was struggling to really make progress and find a lot of lap time. And all the guys around me seemed to be getting faster and faster. That put me under a bit more pressure, especially with only one lap at the end.”

The round itself was “not particularly good,” he said. “Simply because it's difficult. It's hard to do everything in one round.”

The numbers also prove this, because Norris was even faster on the lap interrupted by the red flag than in his attempt at pole: he was 93 thousandths faster in the first sector than later, but almost the same in the second sector – only four thousandths slower than in the pole. Norris then had to abandon the race in the third sector.

Little progress at McLaren

“I had to push a bit harder in the second sector to make up ground,” he says. “But it still felt good. We were good all weekend, we just had problems making progress from practice to qualifying. I expected a bit more.”

Why that was the case is difficult for him to explain. McLaren found a good set-up early on and then stopped improving. “We didn't touch the car all weekend – mainly because it doesn't make much difference anyway, no matter what we do,” said Norris.

“But that's good too,” he says. It was difficult for him on the last lap because his wheels locked up on the bumps and he still made a few mistakes. “The car was just difficult to drive, but very fast. And that allows me to drive at 99 percent and still deliver.”

Nevertheless, it was all about that one round. “I like that,” laughs the Brit. “It gets your heart pounding and it's fun.”

“As I said, the car felt good and when you have a good-feeling car and confidence, you can push and get the lap time,” he says. “I did the job I had to do today and I'm excited to see what we can achieve tomorrow.”

Will Norris bring home a pole this time?

But: Norris has only been able to win from pole once in his Formula 1 career – and even then he had a weak start, which meant he had to let Max Verstappen pass in Zandvoort and then overtake him again later. This time, too, the Dutchman started right next to him.

Nevertheless, he is confident about the race: “We were good all weekend,” he says encouragingly. But he also says: “The others have clearly caught up. Max has improved enormously from yesterday to today, and Mercedes was also a bit too close for my liking when I compare it to FT3.”

However, McLaren was able to score points with good long runs on Friday, which is of course no disadvantage in the race. “I am confident that the car will be good in qualifying and in the race,” he says.

But he may be facing another duel with Max Verstappen – and unlike in the spring, as a World Championship candidate with implications for the World Championship battle. Does that change anything for him compared to, say, Spielberg?

“That won't change anything,” he says with a wink. “I just know that they will try to pull out more tricks. They are probably smarter than the other drivers and know better how to play the long-term game.”