After his worst qualifying of the year at Zandvoort last weekend, where his uninterrupted series of consecutive Q3 missions with the 13th of provisional leader Lewis Hamilton.
But Norris fell back to fourth in the last few runs after Valtteri Bottas moved up to first for Mercedes, leaving the McLaren driver 0.434 seconds off the top of the timesheet. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo qualified fifth.
Verstappen was just 0.023 seconds ahead of Red Bull in third place. Norris was disappointed that he hadn’t qualified better for Saturday’s sprint race.
“I hate those words, ‘very close’ because you always feel like you haven’t done a good enough job,” said Norris when he said he was very close to P3.
“I am happy. We’re in a much better position than last weekend and I’m even more looking forward to the race.
“Missing P3 sucks. I would have loved that little bit more that we had in the car today. But I think I’ll have to try tomorrow.”
Norris thought his first run in Q3 was “my best lap” but he was encouraged by being three tenths of a second behind AlphaTauris Pierre Gasly in sixth place.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“The car is nice and I think it shows in the lap time compared to our position,” said Norris after fighting for tenth place at Zandvoort.
“We’re a little behind Gasly and the other guys we’re up against. So the car is alive, it works well.
“It’s just weird, isn’t it? I find it strange that we can be almost a second and a half off pole on a racetrack, before Verstappen, and now I’m a quarter of a tenth.” [behind Verstappen here].
“[It’s] Just because of the track and the way the car works on different tracks, the difference and variability in lap times can be huge.
“We haven’t really changed much. But the car has gotten miles faster. So it’s cool.”
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