Lando Norris was one of the stars of Qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix, with the Briton able to put himself fourth fastest in Q3, which becomes third once Valtteri Bottas’ three-place grid penalty is applied.
The McLaren F1 Team driver was able to out-qualify Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez, with Norris less than three-tenths of a second away from pole position, which was set by the other Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Norris says there are a lot of positives to take away from Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, and he is in a good position to continue his unbroken run of points scores on Sunday afternoon.
“A very good quali – P3 in the end,” said Norris. “The car felt good throughout all of qualifying, I was confident and could always make the small improvements needed.
“That gave us P3, which is nice – especially to be only two-and-a-bit-tenths off pole. A lot of positives and a very good position for us to score some solid points tomorrow, but it’s a long race and that’s where the points are. That’s the important thing.”
“We just lost a lot of pace overnight” – Daniel Ricciardo
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had a disappointing day on the other side of the garage, with the Australian baffled to why the pace he was able to get from the car on Friday disappeared overnight.
Ricciardo was lucky to escape Q1 as he ended less than a tenth ahead of sixteenth-placed Nicholas Latifi, but he was unable to better thirteenth in Q2 as he found himself eliminated.
He admits that the pace he had on Friday – he ended second fastest in Friday afternoon’s session – was not there when he needed it to be, and as a result he will be starting lower than he had been hoping to on Sunday.
“Not the best day, I don’t really know why,” said Ricciardo. “Obviously yesterday was good and the afternoon was really encouraging.
“We just lost a lot of pace overnight with this morning being quite slow and then quali was a similar story. Bit of a strange one at the moment. Yesterday looked really promising, so it’s a shame.
“I would never have expected to be P13. We’ll try to understand it and have a strong race tomorrow.”
