‘We had to try something’ – Norris explains why he was ‘a little surprised’ by Zandvoort pole

Lando Norris conceded that he was “a little surprised” by his pole position in Qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, with the Briton not expecting such a turnaround having felt that he and the team had struggled earlier in the day.

After losing out on P2 to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the Sprint, Norris returned to action again for Qualifying later on Saturday and McLaren soon caught the eye with their performance, both cars having looked quick during Q1.

This continued into Q2 – with Oscar Piastri setting the pace in each of the opening segments – but it was Norris who came out on top in Q3, the World Champion claiming his 18th career pole position via an effort of 1m 11.163s.

Reflecting on his performance after the session, Norris admitted that he had not anticipated the result as he explained: “It doesn’t get any better. A little surprised honestly but, yeah, a decent lap.

"I was pushing because you see how close it is, so you know every one hundredth, two hundredths can make a big difference in the end.

“But just a good turnaround, a good turnaround from earlier today where I felt like we struggled a little bit. Today we certainly felt very strong. The team did a good job, so credit to them on trying to get a little bit more out of the car and it certainly helped me today.”

Pushed on whether the team had made many changes on the car between the Sprint and Qualifying, Norris responded: “I mean, we had to try something because what we had before wasn't going to be enough.

“We made some small changes, nothing that was going to make us gain two tenths or one tenth even, but enough to maybe give me a little more confidence.

“On a track like Zandvoort, you need good confidence in the car and you want to attack a lot, so I felt like I could do that more today and it paid off.”

The 26-year-old concluded that he hopes to “put on a good show” for the fans on Sunday in what will be the last Dutch Grand Prix.

On Piastri’s side of the garage, the Australian was also happy with his performance during the session despite having to settle for P4 behind the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

“I mean, honestly, I’ve been a lot happier this weekend,” said Piastri. “Especially over one lap, I feel like things have come a lot more naturally.

“Maybe the results haven’t quite translated yet, but I feel like the start of both Qualifyings this weekend I’ve been right there and not having to try and chase my tail, and really find a lot of progress.

“That’s been nice. Obviously I would have loved a little bit more lap time in Q3, but honestly I feel like my lap was pretty good. I don’t have any major complaints, I just need to keep chipping away.”

Looking ahead to his prospects for race day, the 25-year-old added: “Hopefully we’re a bit stronger. The Sprint wasn’t great in terms of race pace, so hopefully we’re a bit stronger there. We’ll have to wait and see.”