Lando Norris is delighted with his Q3 lap that brought him 5th place in the French Grand Prix qualifying.
Norris ended Saturday’s qualifying in the top 5 and managed to split Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. The Briton was satisfied with his and McLaren’s performance.
“It [Saturday] has been a very good day,” Norris said.
“Before qualifying, we were discussing whether we should even talk about Q3, because it was very far away from what we thought we could achieve.
“I’m happy. I mean my lap in Q3 felt like a really good lap, the type of lap that you feel like you should be on pole with!
“In other categories if you do this lap, I feel like I’d be very happy with that, and if I’m not on pole then I’d be surprised but I was still like one-and-a-bit seconds away.
“But apart from that, the team have done a good job and I feel like I’ve done a good job extracting everything, so we are in the best position we could be for tomorrow [Sunday].
“We weren’t expecting Q3 today, so to be P5 is a good step.
“I’m hoping a similar scenario happens tomorrow, where we’re thinking it might be a tough race but hopefully it’s just a really easy one!
“We’ll see, but I’m expecting a good race and a good battle with Fernando [Alonso], and maybe not the Mercedes, but I’ll try.”
