Having lost out to his championship rival Max Verstappen in the final qualifying session of the season, McLaren’s title favourite Lando Norris admitted that the Woking-based outfit “just didn’t have the pace.”
Lando Norris had looked to be in a league of his own on Friday at Abu Dhabi, but his closest championship rivals, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen made great strides to mount an attack on Saturday.
The Australian had already looked competitive in final practice before he started qualifying with a storming lap in Q1. Although both McLaren drivers made Q3 with ease, but they used one more set of soft tyres than Verstappen which left them with only one new set for the all-important Q3 session.
Norris and Piastri nailed their final flying lap in qualifying, but it was still not enough to beat Verstappen, who stormed to claim the last pole position of the year. However, McLaren can be fairly delighted and confident with their starting positions which will see Norris and Piastri start from second and third on the grid in the title showdown.
Asked about his car’s performance in qualifying, Norris said: “I think Q1, Q2, not the smoothest. My Q3 laps, I was pretty happy with, honestly. So yeah, I felt pretty good.
“I felt like I got a lot out of the car today, but it just wasn’t enough. So, a bit disappointed because you just want to be on pole for the final race of the year. But we just didn’t have the pace today.
“So, I felt like I got the maximum out of the car, and I have to be happy with that. Of course, behind the one person I kind of want to be ahead of—that’s the only reason for the disappointment. But otherwise, I was pretty happy with my laps, and yeah, it was the maximum we could do.
Pushed on to reveal what he expects from his car in race trim, Norris said that he was not entirely delighted with the MCL39’s behaviour on Friday, but he is hopeful that the changes the team made after practice day will pay off in the race.
“I think we weren’t in the best position on Friday. I think we’ve improved in quite a few areas since then. And race pace, you know, normally we’re pretty strong.
“Max’s pace was also very strong. So yeah, I think today when you look at it, we weren’t quite quick enough. But of course, we’ll hope we can turn some of that around tomorrow,” concluded the Briton.