Norris ‘very happy’ despite missing out on pole

Grand Prix of Miami

Location: Miami International Autodrome 4 May Start time: 1:00 BST on Sunday

McLaren’s Lando Norris said he was “very happy” after qualifying at the Grand Prix of Miami, despite losing out on pole position to Max Verstappen.

Even though Norris’ satisfaction was mixed with some frustration, he felt that some of the issues he has been having this season have improved. He ended up 0.065 seconds away from the Red Bull driver.

The Briton has been open about the fact that he feels as though his McLaren car doesn’t “talk to him” as he would like when pushed to the limit during a qualifying lap.

And while he once more messed up his position by making it pole-sitter, their communication at Hard Rock Stadium this weekend has been better.

The sprint race winner on Saturday, Norris, said, “Max did a Max lap once more and I can’t fault him.” Second was not bad in light of that and his own weekend, then.

Norris expressed his satisfaction with the final product. It’s only frustrating when you miss out on pole, so that’s just a shame.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri and Verstappen both believed that he and he should have fought for pole.

The Australian, who won the championship by nine points the previous time out in Saudi Arabia, claimed he was fourth due to “poor execution.”

The gap has always been close, and we’ve gained a little more on Sundays, but our perception of where we are has always been that we’re going to be beaten, which has proven to be year after year.

Andrea Stella, the team’s principal, claims that Verstappen has now established a sufficient pattern to allow him to claim three poles in six races.

We now have enough data to confirm what we already knew from the (pre-season) test in Bahrain, “Stella said,” indicating that the car was more advantageous in terms of performance in race simulation runs, rather than just on one lap with qualifying trim and brand-new tires.

“We have seen that we haven’t had a perfect lap, essentially.”

We are unwaveringly attempting to assess our understanding of engineering on a solid foundation so that we can test drive our drivers’ cars to see if we can provide them with a car that is just slightly more predictable and full of information about how the grip is when the car is at the limit.

Red Bull have their own in Miami, the first of a number of improvements that they hope will enable Verstappen to compete with McLaren drivers more consistently in races.

Verstappen said, “We are trying to achieve a better balance in the car, of course.” It’s just a really strange layout, in my opinion, so it’s not always the easiest to say that you’ve improved or accomplished something. Therefore, it takes longer.

Red Bull have not been capturing the most accurate portrayal of the two teams’ competitive landscape, according to McLaren.

Red Bull are very good at producing quick cars, Stella asserted. They “drive very fast cars very well,” I would say, and they do it very well to create the narrative in their favor.

They take advantage of every chance they can to stay in the competition, and one of the chances is to tell the story, “Oh, we are making miracles here, the others should win every practice session, qualifying, and race.”

Some of our competitors’ stories, such as this, are written in this form, which we occasionally read before turning the page and concentrating on ourselves.

An intriguing race is set up by the grid. The title rivals are in reverse chronological order, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli serving as the interloper between Norris and Piastri.

And Norris has the chance to win his first race since March’s season-opening race in Australia.

He knows the car is moving at the right pace because he made errors at the last corner on both of his laps during qualifying.

“Whether it’s set-up or what, I’m not too sure,” said Norris, “Max has always been good in qualifying, but we have struggled a little more in qualifying.”

“We are aware that the Red Bulls are running a lot more downforce,” he said. However, we are aware that both conditions will give us good pace in a very long race.