Lando Norris' fine start to the 2021 season continues with fifth on the grid in the Principality, ahead of one Mercedes and one Red Bull
Saturday 22 May 2021 19:28, UK
Lando Norris described the lap which took him to fifth on the Monaco GP grid as one of his best so far in Formula 1
In the week the British youngster signed a new long deal to stay at McLaren beyond next year, Norris continued his fine start to 2021 by qualifying at the head of the third row with a Q3 lap that was within three tenths of a second of pole position.
"That was awesome," said Norris, who is fourth in the Drivers' Championship. "It's such a cool feeling.
"Q3 at the end was definitely one of the best laps I've done in Formula 1, which is difficult to achieve here in Monaco.
"P5 is better than we expected, to be ahead of Perez and Hamilton at least was awesome for us. I'm very happy."
With the end of qualifying curtailed by polesitter Charles Leclerc's crash, Norris also actually finished within half a tenth of Max Verstappen's second place.
"It's a weird feeling because I feel like I did an awesome lap so in some ways I feel that's where we deserve to be, but two tenths is nothing," he said. "It's a lot but it's nothing. Especially to P2, it's half a tenth and you think over what half a tenth is, it's nothing.
"Something magical and we could have been a couple of positions higher but I feel like I delivered everything in my lap I could today so P5 was the best we had."
While Norris has been flying on his second F1 appearance in the Principality, former Monaco race winner Daniel Ricciardo has struggled in the sister MCL35M and dropped out in Q2 with the 12th-fastest time.
McLaren's hopes of a strong race result therefore appear likely to result with Norris.
Ahead of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes (seventh) and Sergio Perez's Red Bull (ninth) on Sunday's starting grid, the 21-year-old is not ruling out the prospect of staying ahead of the ostensibly faster cars on a circuit where track position is king.
Asked what he believes he can achieve on Sunday, Norris replied: "Fifth! The guys ahead of us are quicker, Hamilton is going to be quicker, Perez is quicker, but it's been shown in the past you don't have to have the best car to win or finish in the top five, so keeping those cars behind is the plan."
