Lando Norris was once again the best McLaren F1 Team driver on Saturday at the Mexico City Grand Prix; however, he wasn’t best of the rest in qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
That honour went to Valtteri Bottas, who staggeringly split the Scuderia Ferrari‘s, perhaps making the Finnish driver Norris’ target on Sunday. Importantly, Norris did manage to out-qualify both BWT Alpine F1 Team drivers, with the Woking-based team in a desperate position to try and claw some points back in the battle for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Norris was overall “very happy” to qualify eighth place, and is aware that at the circuit in Mexico City “many things can happen”.
“I’m very happy, it was a good day today and I’m pleased with P8. I did a very good lap in Q3 to put us ahead of both the Alpines, which is the best we could do in the conditions. We’re too far off the teams ahead, but that’s usual, so I’m happy because we’ve given ourselves a good chance going into tomorrow’s race.
“It’s a long run down to Turn One, many things can happen. We’ll switch our concentration to the race and focus on having a clean start, getting away, getting our heads down and having a clean race from then on.”
Qualifying Three “was definitely achievable” – Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo enjoyed one of his better qualifying performances of the season on Saturday, after claiming eleventh place for Sunday’s race.
The Australian was actually disappointed after the session, with the outgoing-McLaren driver having believed that a Qualifying Three appearance was on the cards. Eleventh is still considerably better than what he’s managed for the majority of the season, considering he’s been a regular Qualifying One victim.
The Honey Badger believes that “things still look encouraging” for the race, where the Aussie will be desperate to get himself amongst the points, and, crucially, in and around the Alpine’s.
“I think it was certainly promising in some areas and we had decent pace. The first run in Q2 was decent. There were a few places to improve – a couple of corners in the middle sector – but I felt like it was definitely achievable. On the second run, though, we just came out in loads of traffic and the out-lap was compromised: it was just too slow and so the brakes weren’t in and tyres weren’t in.
“We needed to prepare better for that, and it ultimately cost us. I think things still look encouraging for tomorrow. We should have some pace, but I would have loved to have shown a bit more and got into Q3 today.”
