Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finish second and third for McLaren in British GP Qualifying as Max Verstappen took pole; watch the British Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Showcase at 3pm on Sunday, with build-up from 1:30pm
Saturday 8 July 2023 21:06, UK
Lando Norris admitted it was "pretty insane" to be so close to claiming pole position at the British GP and joked Max Verstappen "always ruins everything" after missing out to the Dutchman.
The 23-year-old Briton will give McLaren their first front row start at Silverstone since 2008 on Sunday after a stunning performance on Saturday where he was briefly on provisional pole position until Verstappen completed his final flying lap to take pole by a quarter of a second.
But it was a stunning afternoon for the Woking-based team as Oscar Piastri claimed P3 to give McLaren their best qualifying performance of the season with the upgrades to the MCL60 appearing to deliver a big step in performance.
"I was close! Two tenths to P1 in Q3, pretty insane," Norris said.
"My last lap was a good lap. I could hear Zak (Brown) on the radio on the in lap which was the best thing ever. Great, I guess, from myself, but also from both of us to be second and third is pretty amazing for the whole team.
"It's always Max! He always ruins everything for everyone! No, I'm very happy. It's been a very special day for us.
"It makes up for everything, all the hard work we have been putting in - especially here with the new livery, home race for myself and the team. A big thanks to everyone."
Norris revealed he was watching the big screens around the circuit after crossing the line to see if he could hold on to pole.
"There's a lot of TV screens around the circuit, I was trying to watch every single one possible. I was surprised how long I stayed at the top for," he said.
"It just kind of depended on when Max was going to cross the line. I guess I'm a little bit surprised, I wasn't expecting for us to be here, or myself to be here anyway. We're very happy with the result.
"It was more if Max made a mistake rather than if we were quicker than him. I put a good lap in, no mistakes, it was a much cleaner lap than my Q3 run one."
McLaren's qualifying performance was even more of a surprise as they had appeared to be lacking one-lap pace during Friday practice.
But McLaren CEO Zak Brown was encouraged by how their long-run pace looks to feel they can fight for a podium finish from their starting slots.
"Our race pace was really strong yesterday. We have been stronger in Qualifying than the race (normally) but yesterday was the opposite," Brown told Sky Sports F1.
"I feel confident about our race pace and of course we're going to be looking forwards. It sure would be nice if we can get a sniff of the podium.
"I don't think we can win it on pure pace. Max has everyone covered, we have to be realistic about that, and also the cars behind us have some pretty awesome pace so we will have our hands full tomorrow.
"This is just the hard work of Andrea [Stella, team principal] and everyone at McLaren - the upgrades are working, the team is executing and the drivers are driving. We've got to take the highs and the lows, this is certainly the high of the season. Let's see what happens in the race tomorrow.
"Austria we are always strong at but you do think is it track specific. But we have made a step forward and we are in the game now.
"I feel like our season got started in Austria which is a little late as everyone else showed up in Bahrain and it feels like we have good momentum. We need to keep our feet on the ground as it's just qualifying.
"We have more (upgrades) coming. Nobody is sitting still and it's unbelievably close so we have to keep our head down and keep pushing."
Oscar Piastri claimed the best qualifying performance of his rookie F1 season to secure P3 behind Norris and ahead of the two Ferraris and Mercedes.
"Very, very, very happy. What a qualifying session - we were almost out in Q1 and then the car was a rocket ship in Q2 and Q3," the Australian said.
"Massive result for the team as well. To have both of us up here is a mega result and now we just have to try and stay here tomorrow.
"Yesterday we had a bit of a rough day, we were a bit quicker than we looked. We did a better job today, these conditions today, we do well in them all the time. We've had a fair few moments like that but to pull that off in Q3 like that was a mega result and both of us have now got the new bits on our car and they're working really well."
Sunday July 9
8:10am: F3 Feature Race
9:50am: F2 Feature Race
11:50am: Porsche Supercup
1:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday - British GP build-up
3pm: The BRITISH GRAND PRIX
5pm: Chequered Flag: British GP reaction
6pm: Ted's Notebook
