Andreas Seidl was delighted with the performance of Lando Norris during Qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix on Saturday, with the Briton setting the fourth fastest time in Q3, which will translate into a third place start once Valtteri Bottas takes his three-place grid penalty.
Norris was on fire all the way through Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring and has put himself in a good position to continue his excellent points scoring run – he remains the only driver on the grid to have scored a top ten finish in each of the opening seven races.
Daniel Ricciardo on the other side of the garage had a much more difficult session, with the Australian lucky to escape Q1 before falling in Q2 – he will start down in thirteenth.
Seidl, the Team Principal of the McLaren F1 Team, says there is a lot of potential, on both sides of the garage, to score big points on Sunday afternoon as they continue to fight with Scuderia Ferrari over third place in the Constructors’ Championship.
“P4 in quali today – translating into starting P3 tomorrow – is the best grid position we’ve achieved so far this year,” said Seidl. “Well done to Lando, who was flying on every single lap he did, and to the team for a clean execution of the quali session.
“Of course, Daniel and ourselves are disappointed we couldn’t progress further than P13 with his car. This is something we’ll analyse, reset and go again tomorrow with the clear objective to get back into the points.
“That aside, it was great to see the one-lap performance we had in the car today. Big thank you to everyone here at the track and back home for working very hard to make this happen. We’re looking forward to another exciting race. The aim is clear: we want to keep scoring good points for our battle in the Constructors’ Championship.”
