Norris would “love” a clean race after string of missed chances to win · RaceFans

Lando Norris is eager to draw a line under a string of missed opportunities to win after taking pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver scored his first grand prix victory in Miami two months ago. He has come close to winning several more races since then, including at Imola, Montreal, the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.

Although he played down the importance of winning today’s race, Norris admitted he is eager to have an error-free run to maximise his chances of success.

“Every single quali[fying] is important, every race is important, so it’s not all of a sudden I need to do it and I need to prove my point,” he said after qualifying yesterday. “I don’t. We’ve done the best we could in every race.

“I think we’ve shown great pace and great opportunities. I know we’ve missed out on some, we don’t need to get back into all of that stuff. But I would love to have a clean, strong weekend.

“From yesterday already, we were very strong in the beginning in FP2, FP3, quali now. So it would be nice just to have a nice turn one and see what happens from there.”

However with his team mate Oscar Piastri starting alongside and Max Verstappen third, Norris said he’s “not expecting” an easy run. “I’m expecting still a difficult race with Oscar and Max behind.

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“But every one is important. Every time we’re trying to maximise every place, every point. The more we can try to get back on Max, the more we as a team can get on Red Bull and other constructors, the better.

“So there’s no point or emphasis on trying to beat a particular someone or something. It’s just go out and do what we do because we’re doing a good job.”

Despite taking his third pole position for a grand prix, Norris said his qualifying session could have gone better. He said he used his fresh soft tyres too quickly early in the session, leaving him with only one fresh set for Q3.

“We lost it in Q2, just because my first lap on the used tyre wasn’t good enough,” he said. “I did almost three-quarters of a lap on a new tyre at the end of Q1, so I’ll probably say that’s where we messed it up.

“It was a bit silly, I think. We went out on a new tyre at the end of Q1 just to be safe. But we were safe anyway, so we boxed. I did pretty much a whole lap on a new tyre, which meant my lap in Q2, on a pretty much full-lap used [tyre] was never going to be fantastic compared to…