Lando Norris admitted that his final lap in qualifying for the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix “was just not enough” to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to pole.
With McLaren clean sweeping practice and Verstappen struggling throughout, everyone expected a Papaya car on pole and the Dutch ace fighting to be as close behind them as possible.
Instead, a stunning lap record effort saw Verstappen pip Norris to pole position by 0.012s.
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Norris had time to find in his second Q3 run, being over four-tenths down from provisional pole sitter Oscar Piastri after his first attempt and was happy to recover to find himself on the front row, admitting McLaren just didn’t have enough to thwart the reigning champion.
“[Suzuka is] a track where you just got to kind of chip away in different areas, and commit a bit more in those high-speed corners,” Norris said.
“I was pretty happy with my lap, honestly. I tried pushing a good amount more in Q3 run one, and it didn’t work out, clearly, so I just had to kind of peg it back a lot.
“I was happy with the balance and happy with the car at the end.
“The margin is so small, you’d think it was one hundredth in it, and you would probably say yes, but yeah, just not enough for pole today.”
Missing pole ‘frustrating,’ but Norris ‘much happier than in China’
Unlike a fortnight ago, when Norris rued mistakes and wrestling an unforgiving McLaren MCL39 in China, the Briton has been “much happier” in Japan.
This time around, Norris noted how it was “frustrating” to have qualifying be the only session thus far that a McLaren hasn’t led, but overall, there’s plenty of reasons for him to be positive as he described the difference in feeling between Japan and China.
“Much happier than China, yeah. The car’s a lot more back to my liking,” he said.
“I’ve got some front end in the car and I’m much, much happier with that.
“ I’ve been feeling confident all weekend. You know, if kind of Quali was in FP1, and if it was a Sprint race, I feel like I’d be much further ahead, but everyone’s good enough that by the time you get to Quali, they kind of catch up a bit.
“I’ve been feeling good, but the car’s been feeling good from the off as well, and we’ve been chipping away.
“I think between both of us [McLarens], we’ve been quickest in every session, bar this one, so it’s the little frustrating one, but yeah, I think the corners I still struggle with and the corners I’m still not happiest with are the corners I still just don’t have the front end and I don’t have the grip in the car when I need it from the front.
“So it’s clear what suits me and what doesn’t, or just what allows me to be quick and what doesn’t.
“China was one of those weaker tracks, and we come here, and the car’s a lot more how I want it, and I’m much better again.”
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