If you believe the next sentence amounts to the entire truth, you will believe anything. ‘It’s not like all of a sudden I need to do it and prove a point — I don’t.’
That was Lando Norris talking after taking a fine pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, and, strangely, he was partly right to say what he did. He is driving very well, in the form of his life, but the actualite is that if he gets his McLaren over the line first on Sunday he will feel a very real sense of relief. And if he does not…
This is largely because he — and his team — have torpedoed their strong chances of victory in all the last four races, the most recently at Silverstone a fortnight ago. He was kept out too long, shod on the wrong tyres, and overshot the pit box.
Those errors came on the back of a crash with Max Verstappen in Austria, flunking his pole position by slipping straight down to third in Spain, and deliberating too long whether to switch rubber when the safety car came out in Canada. He was doing beautifully that day in the wet until then. So, the upshot is he finds himself 84 points behind Verstappen despite being in a potential world championship- winning car. Gutting.
Judging by his recent comments, he has done some soul-searching as his self-critical nature suggested he would. More widely, his flaky moments have led to the question of whether he has the steel to take on Verstappen, whose own carbon quality has never required laboratory examination.
McLaren star Lando Norris will start on pole in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest
Norris had an excellent qualifying session on Saturday and is now expecting to win on Sunday
Sunday’s race will be watched by a full house at the 70,000 capacity Hungaroring racetrack
After taking pole for the second time in four races, Norris’s task is at least helped by the fact team-mate Oscar Piastri starts alongside him — McLaren’s first front-row lockout since 2012. Can they find a way of ganging up on one-man wrecking ball Max, who starts third after an eventful qualifying? Just when it looked as if Norris had already done enough, leading the time sheets with Verstappen’s final lap completed, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda went hard into the hoardings, causing a delay.
Two minutes and 13 seconds remained on the clock, a one-lap shoot-out. Or so it seemed. But, as most drivers queued in the pit lane to do the final blast, rain spat. The pitch was queered. No improvements were possible.
Norris, therefore, remained safe, 0.022 sec clear of Piastri. Verstappen was 0.046 back.
Although Norris is expecting to win, he claimed: ‘It’s not like all of a sudden I need to do it and prove a point — I don’t’
As for Mercedes, a poor day. Lewis Hamilton was fifth and George Russell, blaming himself, a 17th. What else? Red Bull’s under-the-gun Sergio Perez crashed, but that is hardly news.Returning to the pole man. ‘We are in the best position whatever the weather throws at us,’ he said.
‘I am expecting to win, and if I don’t it hasn’t been a good day. The car is doing well, I am driving well, so it is obvious what the aim is.’ What were we saying?