Norris ‘working hard’ to turn ‘best lap’ into win

Lando Norris says he took pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix with the “best lap” of his career and that he was “working hard” to turn it into a win on Sunday.

The McLaren driver beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.356 seconds in qualifying at Zandvoort – a significant margin around one of the shorter laps of the season.

“I feel like I did a very good lap, by far my best. The car was good and I felt good too,” said Norris, who paid tribute to his team for the success of their first upgrade to the car since the Miami race in May.

“We’ve been quite patient. We’ve not really brought many upgrades, or we haven’t brought any real performance-enhancing upgrades since Miami.

“We took our time because we wanted to make sure it worked well and worked as soon as we put it on the car and it does what it wants. And so far it’s looked exactly that way. So credits to the team for playing a big part in this too.”

It was the 24-year-old Briton’s third pole position of the season, and the largest margin in percentage teams for a pole-winning driver since Verstappen’s in China in the fourth race of the season.

Norris did not convert either of the previous two – in Spain and Hungary – into a win because he was passed by rivals at the start.

A series of small errors by driver or team in a number of races have cost them chances of victory and led to Norris admitting before this race that he had not been driving at the level of a world champion so far this season.

Norris said: “I want to win, but I’m not desperate. I’m working hard to win. We all do as a team. All of us here want to win, but not desperate, because desperation doesn’t succeed to anything.”

In Spain, Norris dropped from pole to third at the first corner after being passed by Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell.

And in Hungary he lost out to team-mate Oscar Piastri, who went on to win. The Australian qualified third in the Netherlands almost 0.5secs behind Norris.

Norris said he and the team had been looking into how to increase their chances of converting their potential.

“I know my starts have not been my forte over the last [few races] probably,” Norris said.

“They’ve not been bad, honestly. I’m still up there with being one of the best average starters. I’ve just missed out on a couple of races and maybe slightly worse than what it’s been over the course of a season.

“There’s a couple of times when they’ve not been quite where they need to be a couple of times I’ve been on the front row. It’s been different things each time.

“But I feel confident I put in a good amount of work to kind of try and make my starts a bit better.”

And he said he was hopeful Sunday would deliver the win he has wanted.

“We’re in a pretty reasonable place,” Norris said. “Our long-run pace was pretty strong the other day, but Max, Oscar, both the Mercs, especially George, in the position he is, are quick and are going to be challenging. So I’m not expecting anything easy for sure.”

Verstappen was pleased to qualify on the front row after a difficult weekend for Red Bull.

“I never really felt that I was in the fight for pole,” the world champion said. “And then when you come out of qualifying on the front row, I think that’s OK.”

But he pointed out that Norris’ pace advantage did not augur well for Red Bull’s chances in the race.

“When you see the gap, it’s going to be very tricky,” Verstappen said.

“Also, it just seems like Lando’s a bit happier in general with just the driving and how he feels. I’m a bit more all over the place with the balance, so I don’t know, maybe it stabilises a bit tomorrow.”

Red Bull had their own upgrade in the Netherlands, but Verstappen acknowledged they were no longer the fastest car.

“If you look at the last, what, seven races, it’s just been a bit more difficult for us,” he said.

“And we are trying to understand or try to just improve the situation. But it’s not a magic button or switch, you know, that you turn.”

Verstappen’s team-make Sergio Perez took fifth, behind Mercedes’ George Russell, after benefiting from driver coaching at Silverstone this week.

“It was just to get up to speed,” Perez said. “It’s always good to refresh your mind; (and work on) things I was struggling with, understanding them.”

Russell, 0.571secs off pole after being fastest in Friday practice, was optimistic he could challenge in the race.

“I expect a good fight with the McLarens,” he said. “They have still been the quickest in the last few races, even at Spa, I think Piastri was the fastest car.

“If we get the strategy right and make a good start, it can all change very quick.”

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton starts 12th after struggling for pace and making an error on his final lap in the second part of qualifying. “I don’t expect it to be a great race,” he said.