McLaren praises Norris: ‘We already wanted to challenge the decision’

McLaren was often strong in the sprint races in 2023, and in 2024 the British team can also expect a good result in the first race of the season. Lando Norris set the fastest time in SQ3, although the Brit still had to fear losing his lap time. If that were to happen, McLaren would challenge the decision.

Lando Norris emerged as the fastest man in the final qualifying section, although the 24-year-old Briton lost his first lap after stalling several times. In the end he was more than a second faster than the others. “It’s a pole to run in really bad conditions if you’re talking about the low level of grip and the medium tyres,” McLaren team boss Andrea Stella immediately puts his driver’s fast time into perspective. F1TV.

McLaren had a lower top speed than teams like Red Bull Racing and Ferrari, and this made McLaren stronger in wet conditions. ‘You also saw a lot of drivers who ended up near the roundabout. That is not unusual, but it is a reflection of how small the trap was under these conditions. Lando (Norris, editor.) did a great job. He was able to minimize the impact of these situations and managed to make the most of them,” the Italian praised his driver.

You missed an opportunity in Piastri

However, Stella was not completely satisfied. ‘It was a shame for Oscar (Piastri, editor.), because he had a problem leaving the hairpin bend. The gearbox went into neutral, so he lost a lot of time there. Otherwise, the second McLaren could have been further ahead,” says Stella of his other driver, who will have to start eighth. “So far so good, but we will see in the dry conditions how realistic our expectations were early on,” said the Italian. , who expected a challenging weekend.

Downtime by Norris

For a while it looked like Lewis Hamilton would take pole position, as Norris was forced to re-hand his fastest time. ‘We already wanted to challenge that option, because I suspect that the time was removed because Lando went out of the last corner on the previous lap.’ Stella then points out that there is a gravel trap in the bow. ‘If you leave the track at the start of your lap, you’ll actually lose a lot of time in the next lap, because you start your lap at a slower pace. It seems so race control they have already discovered that. Lando deserved a sorry place, and it’s good that the cycle time was restored.”

Finally, Stella looked forward to Saturday in Shanghai. ‘The weather will remain unpredictable. We’re ready, so we’ll see. It is very likely that it will be wet in the morning, and then we will see if we will have a dry session in qualifying or not.’ Sprint races start locally at 5:00 am, with qualifying at 3:00 pm. “We have to be ready for anything and make sure we do a good job, like we did now, the drivers and the team.”

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