McLaren driver took 4th place on the starting grid for the race at the Hungaroring, but still preferred to pay attention to the 'glass half empty
So far, it is a good weekend for McLaren in Hungary - and Lando Norris' 4th place in Saturday's qualifying session at the Hungaroring proves it. After the session, the Briton stressed that the second row represents a "strong track position" for the Woking team.
"A very good day for us, but I'm a bit disappointed. George (Russell) takes some of my glory away, but I'm happy for him. It's his first pole in F1," he joked, before congratulating the pole-position.
"We're in front of the guys we wanted to overtake, and fourth place is a strong track position. It's not easy to overtake here, it will be like that tomorrow. We weren't far off pole, especially considering where we were at the beginning of the season. If we look back to last week, Alpine definitely had a faster car. This weekend we performed well. We are strong," said Norris.
"I think being like this has allowed us to better understand how the performance of the car works and how it doesn't work well. It's clear to us and it has nothing to do with drag. Nothing to do with that. It's the way we adjust the car - it's in the slow corners where we have the most difficulty, while Alpine is strong in that," he continued.
Even with the good performance and the good result in the actions for the Hungarian GP, the British driver asked for caution. According to Norris, the MCL36 is still an erratic car - and not even McLaren's performance at the Hungaroring can mask that.
"The car still doesn't do what I want it to do. It's hard to drive the car, which is difficult and inconsistent, hard to repeat one lap after another. Today, though, it was enough for a fourth place," he declared.
Norris, finally, also looked at the 'glass half empty', showing that he is prepared for all kinds of scenarios in this Sunday's race - and, also, understanding that he can lose positions throughout the race.
"The disadvantage is being on the dirty side of the track. We have Valtteri right behind and we all remember what happened last year. We are on the inside lane, too. The weather conditions could be unstable tomorrow, even with possible rain. Hamilton is in a car 0s4 faster than mine, so it will be a challenge to keep him behind. And Verstappen too," he finished.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and INREAL TIME all the activities of the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. On Sunday, the race is scheduled to start at 10:00 am [GMT-3].