McLaren’s Lando Norris clinched his first front row start for the Austrian Grand Prix after landing the second-fastest lap of the day during Qualifying on Saturday.
He will be taking off behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who has already proven his potential to dominate at the Red Bull Ring following his victory here last weekend.
Speaking after the Qualifying session today, Lando described the ‘pretty straightforward’ session where he ‘maximised everything’.
“The whole of quali was pretty good; pretty straightforward and good laps and so on”, Norris said.
“Then, I definitely saved the best ’til last and did my best lap in Q3, Run Two.
“So, I’m obviously very happy. I’ve got a great position for tomorrow and I think we maximised everything we could today.
“I was only four-hundredths away from P1, so it would have been nice to do that little bit more but I’m very happy with where I am.
“I think most corners I definitely did my best laps on. I was actually just behind Max, so I was P2 on track and was a bit nervous I was going to start losing a lot in the straights – which I did but I made up for it in the corners. Especially the high-speed.”
The 21-year-old revealed that he “took quite a few more risks” and that’s where he found a lot of his lap-time.
“It’s a cool feeling – especially around here, it’s a pretty awesome track to really push it on and to try to find those last couple of hundredths. Especially taking risks and not taking risks and so on – so it’s a good feeling. Definitely rewarded myself nicely.”
As for his plan of attack for the race tomorrow, the British driver said; “We’re in the best position possible to maximise everything but if I have a chance to go for P1, a chance to race Max and go for it, then I will.
“I’m still doing that, I’m still racing, I still want to do the best I can – but I think I also know what’s best for us, what’s best for myself and the team and who we are – sadly – really racing against in the race tomorrow.”
