Lando Norris was pleased that the positive momentum from the French Grand Prix weekend has carried over to this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, with the Briton excelling in Qualifying once more on Saturday.
The McLaren F1 Team racer ended sixth fastest overall during the final segment of Qualifying, and with a penalty being applied to Haas F1 Team racer Kevin Magnussen ahead of him, he will start the race up in fifth position, his best starting place of his short Formula 1 career.
Norris admitted the team knew it was going to be tougher to emulate their performance in France, where he and team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. locked out the third row of the grid, but it was a positive Saturday, at least on his side of the garage in Austria.
“It was a good quali,” said Norris. “We knew it was going to be a tough and it turned out to be closer than at Paul Ricard.
“But we can all be pleased with starting P5 for the second race in a row – a great job by the team here and back at Woking.”
Norris knows it will be difficult to maintain his position with some drivers not in their expected spots, but he is looking to keep out of trouble and maximise his race result and put the disappointment of his late race position drop, caused by a hydraulics issue on his MCL34, last weekend in France behind him.
“It’s a good starting position,” admits Norris. “I’ll try to have a race like we had last week at Ricard. The key will be to consolidate my start position and stay out of trouble, and see where we end up.
“The high ambient and track temperatures are likely to have a big impact on the results.”
