Lando Norris: Fighting Charles Leclerc for pole wasn't worth 'risk' to F1 title bid
Lando Norris was Hungary for pole in Budapest but admitted he was not prepared to risk his Formula 1 title bid to get it. The elements played their part in qualifying yesterday as a brief rain shower surprised everyone before the wind changed direction completely at the end.
That caused panic as almost everyone went slower with their final laps than they had earlier in the session. And it hit McLaren harder than most, opening the door for Charles Leclerc to snatch pole from the two title rivals in orange.
Norris is just 16 points behind Oscar Piastri heading into Sunday's race and, with margins so tight in their battle to become F1 champion for the first time, he wasn't prepared to gamble. He said: "The position me and Oscar are in as drivers, it was harder for us to take a risk on the final lap.
"We probably could have gone a tenth quicker, but we could also have gone a tenth slower and a tenth slower puts you back by three or four positions quite quickly. I don't know why it affected us a lot more than others. We were six-tenths slower!
"Q2 was a nice, easy, good lap but it felt like we could go two or three tenths quicker with a perfect lap. Q3, we go out and it feels dreadful and the wind changes completely. The first run we did kind of scared Oscar and myself a bit more [than Leclerc]."
Both McLaren drivers will expect to be in the fight for victory, but Norris thinks the Ferrari can cause them more problems. He pointed to Leclerc's strong long-run pace in practice as reason to believe it might be more difficult than usual to get the better of the Monegasque.
He added: "Charles was not far away at all on Friday. Charles has been the closest to use over the last three, four, five races, both in qualifying and the races themselves. So if anyone was going to be ahead today, it was Charles. And if anyone is going to make our lives difficult tomorrow, it's also him.
"The start here is probably the most important thing, the opening lap. But it's a long race and there is meant to be rain as well, so that will play a part. You can prepare as much as you want but, in races like these, you need to make decisions on the go and just make the best of strategy, pit stops and lap one."
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Piastri said it was "a pretty big surprise" to see Leclerc ahead of the McLarens on the timesheets and felt his car's loss of performance in that final part of qualifying was "a bit strange". But he remains focused on heading into the summer break with the best possible result.
The Aussie said: "We're both going to try to win the race, that's our goal. We'll have to wait and see what the weather does as well. It's a place where strategy is a factor as well, so there's a lot of things where you can win or lose, but I'm sure we'll both be trying to win the race in our own way."
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