McLaren praise ‘resilient’ Lando Norris after impressive rebound

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has heaped praise on Lando Norris’s resilience  after he claimed a dominant pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris, who topped every session since second practice, produced a sensational performance to beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pole by half a second - the biggest margin of the 2025 F1 season so far.

It marked a stunning bounce back from Norris following his race-ending collision with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri last time out in Canada which has left him 22 points adrift in the championship.

And McLaren team principal Stella was quick to praise Norris’s mental strength to recover from a bruising and “painful” weekend in such a manner.

“When we talk about Lando’s speed, recently it has been very competitive,” Stella told media including Crash.net at the Red Bull Ring.

“He was pole position in Monaco, he was in line for pole position in Canada and a very convincing pole position here. So very proud of what Lando has been able to achieve over the last few races in terms of speed.”

Piastri is third on the grid after yellow flags caused by a Pierre Gasly spin ruined his last Q3 run.

“I think we are in a period in which we definitely see that Lando is very resilient,” Stella added. “Even if we had some little issues, definitely we have always bounced back stronger and even more convincing.

“So credit to the work that Lando has done from a technical point of view but also from a personal development point of view. This is typical of all the athletes, all the champions. They never stay in the same place, it’s a constant evolution from technical, professional and also personal.

"Credit to Lando and also credit for the support he has received from the team around him. From a speed point of view, I think that’s been there. If we look at Canada even in the race, Lando was probably the fastest car in the race as well.

“So a bit of a shame but the season is very long and if we keep growing, and we keep developing like Lando has been doing so far. But also like Oscar has been doing so far. If we think 12 months ago, some of the races for Oscar were very difficult, qualifying and the race and today he’s always there.

“Very encouraged and very proud of both of our drivers and what they are achieving in terms of personal development and in terms of technical and performance development.”

Lando Norris's best qualifying of the year?

Norris believes his third pole of the season at Spielberg was "easily" his best of the year, eclipsing those he claimed at the opening round in Australia and his stunning lap in Monaco.

"On the whole, it was easily my best qualifying of the year from a delivery point of view from every single lap I did," Norris said. "I still made a couple of mistakes here and there, but none that cost me a lap or anything, just maybe a tenth here or half a tenth there.

"So, I think on deliveries, consistency and of course putting it in when it counts in Q3 was easily the best lap I've done for this whole season, probably even better than Monaco, honestly. Maybe not as exciting a lap as Monaco, but definitely a better put together lap than I did there."

However, Norris was quick to point out that he still needs to find more consistency after making critical qualifying errors in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

"I mean, it's very satisfying, but, again, it's about consistency," Norris explained. "Everyone can be a hero in one weekend.

"It's progress. It's steps forward. I'm very happy with today, but it's still a long journey. It's a long season.

"The job I needed to do today, I did. And it doesn't make up for the last few weekends or anything, but I did it today, and that's what mattered. So, yeah, very satisfied and happy for putting it together when I needed to."