Lando Norris makes confident Spanish GP comment despite losing to Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri took pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix as Lando Norris had to settle for second place on the grid ahead of Max Verstappen and George Russell on the second row
Lando Norris confidently declared McLaren have the best race car after dominating qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. For the first time in 27 years, the Woking-based team have locked out the front row at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Oscar Piastri is the man starting on pole on Sunday. He lived up to his strong performance in practice by getting the better of Norris on their final runs, nailing that last lap while Nico Rosberg in commentary for Sky Sports thought the Brit was over-driving.
Just three points separate the two McLaren drivers at the top of the championship and they look set for a tight and tense title tussle. But despite losing starting advantage in Barcelona to his rival, Norris said he was pleased with his performance.
He said: "Oscar drove very well. I think the pace was definitely there, I just [made] a couple of little mistakes. Yep, I didn't do it and Oscar was driving very well all weekend, so a good result for the team, a nice one-two and an interesting start for tomorrow.
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"It's a long run down to turn one which is always interesting, and we've got a lot of quick guys behind us – we won't count them out. But a good result for today, I'm happy."
Norris went on to make it clear he is very confident that those behind won't be able to trouble him too much, though, as when he was asked if he felt he had a good race car for Sunday he replied: "We do, we have the best one."
Piastri had been ominously quick in final practice a few hours before qualifying and paid tribute to the progress made in his side of the garage over the course of the weekend. "Yeah, very happy, it's been a good weekend so far. It didn't start off in the best way and we were struggling a little bit, but last night we found some pace and today the car has been mega," he said.
"I feel like I've been able to put in some good laps as well, so thank you to the team for all the hard work. This was a pretty miserable scene 12 months ago, so to have turned it around in the best way is a great result.
"I improved quite a lot in turn one, actually, the there were another couple of points on the lap where I've been struggling all day. I don't know if I necessarily did better, but it all just came to me mainly in the first half of the lap, and then the second half I could just about hang on.
"It wasn't the perfect lap but around here, with the tyres going off so much through the lap, it's very tough to do that so I'm very happy with all the work I've put in."
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