Lando Norris says his motivational radio message from race engineer Will Joseph as the final round of qualifying began was unusual for him.
Joseph urged Norris to have confidence in his car’s performance as he embarked on his first run in Q3. “Trust the car,” he said, adding a reminder for the driver not to excessively combine braking and cornering. “Don’t overload combined. The lap time will come.”
Afterwards Norris admitted this was not a typical radio message for him. “It’s a very rare thing,” he said. “He knows I don’t like that kind of stuff, normally.
“It’s just because I said after, I think, Q2, I was just not confident at all in the car. I was bouncing everywhere. I just lacked confidence at that point to put a good lap together.
“I’ve been struggling in turn one, been struggling in turn 12. But we were there or thereabouts. It was more just ‘let’s get a good lap in and be there’. So that’s what I did.”
The advice appeared to pay off as Norris pipped championship rival Max Verstappen with his first run. When both had to abandon their final runs due to George Russell’s crash, Norris secured pole position.
“Whether or not what I did was because of Will’s comments, I’d probably say no, otherwise I’ll boost his ego too much,” Norris joked afterwards. “But it was just that I probably needed it a little bit just because I was struggling a lot with the car and we’ve been a bit off this weekend and a little kick never hurts, sometimes.”
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However Norris regards the lap which secured him pole position as potentially his best ever.
“It was just a very nice lap,” he said. “I kind of set the bar too high because on my second lap, I was like, ‘guys, I don’t think I’m going to improve much here’.
“I got everything out of the car. We changed a good amount from the sprint race into quali today now and definitely took a step forward. But man, I was still struggling a lot, so I just knew I had to risk a little bit more and give it that little extra. And it just came together perfectly.
“But it was definitely not a lap I could have repeated. I’m very happy because I really wasn’t expecting to be [on pole] today.”
Norris said he had to take more risks in the quick corners at the end of the lap to match Verstappen’s time. “The high speed is a little bit where we struggle a touch compared to the Red Bulls, especially Max, [he]…
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