Lando Norris said he put in a sub-par performance after qualifying fifth for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver will start from fourth place following Max Verstappen’s penalty, which remains his lowest grid position since the Monaco Grand Prix. He said he was satisfied with the result but admitted he hasn’t been performing at his best.
“It was tough but I’m honestly pretty happy with today,” Norris told the official F1 channel. “I think in the end, me and Oscar were split by half a tenth or something. Clearly we were lacking comparing to the cars ahead. Especially the Red Bull – the Red Bull is on another level comparing to us in the rain and even the dry they were probably still a bit stronger.
“So a tough day. I expected worse, and I’ve not been driving particularly well. Just one of those days where it’s just not clicking. Kind of similar to yesterday, honestly, just a little bit of a struggle out there for me. So to salvage P5, I was pretty happy with that.”
Norris will start behind Charles Leclerc, who inherited pole position from Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. He predicted he and Verstappen will meet on track during the race, but expects the set-up choices McLaren have made will help them.
“We’re in a good spot, but remember Red Bull on pole [sic], and they’re clearly the quickest,” he said. “So it’ll be tough.
“Max is going to come through, I think, pretty quickly. I’m most likely going to be fighting him for the win.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“But I’m hoping with maybe a slightly lower downforce setting that we chose today, it comes back into our favour.
Norris’ team mate Oscar Piastri, who will start immediately behind him in fifth place, also believes McLaren “can still fight for the win tomorrow.”
“I think our pace was very strong yesterday in the dry and it’s looking like a dry race tomorrow. Obviously starting a little bit further back makes life a bit more tricky, but I still think we’re in decent shape to fight for a win.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2024 Belgian Grand Prix
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…