According to his words, the McLaren driver was happy to have even made it to the third part of qualifying. Under the given conditions, he takes seventh place.
Lando Norris (3rd in practice / 7th in qualifying)
The twenty-three-year-old pilot from Bristol was apparently thinking about a higher position before the qualifying runs. However, given the course of Q1, he can be happy about the final result.
“I’m happy and angry at the same time, in the first part of qualifying I went off the track and completely destroyed the floor. So I’m happy to be in the top ten and to be just a few tenths short of Oscar. I think he did an excellent job, his middle sector was particularly strong.
We are slow on the straights, so we have our strengths and weaknesses here. But it could have turned out much worse. I didn’t have to advance from the first part at all, so I’ll take 7th place.
Practically the entire floor was damaged. The guys tried to tape it up, did what they could, but the damage was too extensive for me to be competitive. Fortunately, it can be fixed.
It’s frustrating especially because we didn’t lose too much to our opponents. Hopefully we can use the potential better tomorrow,” said Norris.
Oscar Piastri (2nd in practice / 5th in qualifying)
Despite a decent fifth place in qualifying, the Australian revealed that the drying track may have paradoxically harmed him.
“I saw Lando’s floor being glued together. I just asked how he was doing, and then the team and I discussed where we were strong and where we were weak. I felt great in the changing conditions. To some extent, I have to say that the drying track and the return to normal did not help me much. I have never driven an F1 car here in the dry. The braking points were completely different.
Outside the ideal track, I lost a lot of time when braking. Fortunately, we are on a track where it is possible to overtake, so we will see how we handle it. We have another qualifying and a sprint ahead of us, but I think we can believe in ourselves.
Ferrari probably strengthened this weekend, so it won’t just be about two teams fighting for the top spot. The position of the second fastest team will be decided between three, possibly four teams. It won’t be easy, but I believe we have a decent chance tomorrow,” said Piastri.
2023-07-28 19:11:08
#Norris #destroyed #floor #start #qualifying
