Lando Norris left to rue mistakes as “pace was there” to take Barcelona F1 pole

Lando Norris feels an untidy lap cost him a shot at beating McLaren Formula 1 teammate Oscar Piastri for pole position in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Norris held a narrow buffer of 0.017s over Piastri after the first runs in qualifying, but the advantage swung the other way around as the session drew to an end.

While the championship leader delivered a three-tenth improvement on his final flying lap, Norris found little time and eventually finished two tenths down on his teammate in second.

Speaking afterwards, Norris stressed that the “pace was there” to grab back-to-back pole position in Formula 1, but ultimately a series of unforced errors early in the lap left him with too much time to recover.

“Just a couple of little, little mistakes,” he lamented. “Turn one, kind of the first place you don't want to make a mistake just because it harms the rest of the lap with the tyres and things.

“So just a couple little squiggles there and then the exit of turn 4 as well. So, just not a perfect lap, not the cleanest lap. But I still improved surprisingly.

“So the pace was easily there, just a couple too many mistakes.”

Lando Norris admits he overdrove in qualifying

Norris blamed the errors on “trying a little bit too much”, but feels second on the grid is “not the end of the world” for him.

“The speed was easily there today. Sometimes you don't put the laps in,” he explained.

“But today it was good. I think I was a little bit behind [in the pitlane queue] at the start of qualifying and I caught up nicely.

“I know where I lost that time on the final lap. It was just trying a little bit too much and just not being quite tidy enough.

“Especially around a lap like Barcelona, one little oversteer in Turn 1, Turn 2, you kind of already know it's going to be a tricky rest of the lap.

“It was good. I still feel fine. I'm so happy with the second, especially in Barcelona. It's not, not the end of the world. So a positive weekend.”

Both the ambient and track temperatures have been quite high in Barcelona this weekend, which in theory should suit the McLarens.
However, the mercury levels do lead to excessive tyre wear, especially on a high degradation circuit like Barcelona.

“We've been, we've been good in all conditions so far,” said Norris. “It's obviously very hot, Just a bit of a struggle for everyone.

“It's a struggle in qualifying to look after the tyres for one lap, so the race is then much trickier.

“But the car's been good the whole weekend, as we have shown today. That's always reassuring before Sunday.”