Despite an impressive third place finish for McLaren F1 Team‘s Lando Norris in today’s Friday qualifying session at Imola, the Briton still believes there was room to improve as the papaya-coloured team look ahead to Saturday’s Sprint Qualifying session.
“[I’m] very happy. P3, which I’m a bit surprised by but I think a lot of other people made some mistakes and we took advantage of that. To be honest, I made quite a few mistakes as well,” the number four driver explained.
“There was a chance we maybe could have done a little bit better, I think there was a bit left in it at the end and it would have been nice to go for that lap and attack one more time, but I just made a mistake and caught the white line. Apart from that, I’m happy and in a good position for tomorrow.”
Norris set a lap time of 1:29.131 on a set of Intermediate tyres, before the red flags were released and the rain started to pour. As a result, the 22-year old will start Saturday’s Sprint race on the second row of the grid, alongside Kevin Magnussen.
“I really feel I could be significantly further up” – Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo was able to put his McLaren car in sixth place by the end of Qualifying Three, marking a very strong finish for the Woking-based team. While sixth place is a great effort, the Australian feels like there was more potential after not being able to complete as many laps as the front runners.
“On paper it’s pretty good. I feel a little hurt because I think pretty much everyone in front of me did two laps and I just got the one because of the red flags. With the improvements on the second lap, I really feel I could be significantly further up, but that’s alright.”
“I’m happy we had good pace and happy we’re in a good position and up the pointy end. We’ll fight hard for the rest of the weekend and I’m looking forward to the Sprint. It’ll be fun,” the number three driver concluded.
While third and sixth place is a good result for McLaren in qualifying, the job is only halfway done as the team need to try and retain or improve their position in Saturday’s Sprint, in order to maximise their chances in Sunday’s race.
