(LR) Red Bull Racing’s Dutch driver Max Verstappen, McLaren’s British driver Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Spanish driver Carlos Sainz Jr. pose after qualifying for the Formula One United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas October 19, 2024. – Norris won pole position ahead of Verstappen in second and Sainz in third. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)
Lando Norris radiated satisfaction on Saturday after beating front-runner and three-time champion Max Verstappen to secure pole position for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver set the best lap in one minute and 32.330 seconds, 0.031 seconds ahead of his Red Bull rival, who leads the title race by 54 points with six races remaining.
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“It was a beautiful lap,” said Norris after securing his first American pole and his fourth pole in five races to overtake Verstappen.
READ: F1: Lando Norris drives to victory at Singapore Grand Prix
Lando’s fourth pole in five races! 👏#F1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/0VzjBJjsdo
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 20, 2024
“I didn’t want to be much faster than I was. If you just do one lap and think, “Damn, this is going to be hard to beat”… I put everything on the line and that’s what we had to do.
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“We were behind for most of the weekend. We didn’t have the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls so I had to do something and today I did that, so yeah, a cool lap and a nice start to the race!”
He added that he enjoyed the feeling of speed at the Circuit of the Americas.
“Inside you think, ‘Damn, that’s fast!’ and it’s exciting and it just gives you a good feeling, it’s bumpy and it’s fast, especially sector one, it puts a smile on your face, and the fastest finish is definitely the biggest smile on your face too .”
He said it was a tough weekend for McLaren.
“A tough day, a tough weekend for us, but we’ve changed quite a bit. I think we checked everything we could and we made the necessary improvements, so maybe we weren’t the fastest car out there today.
“Carlos (Sainz) said he would go faster, Max (Verstappen) said he would go faster, so I’m lucky but I’ll take it.”
READ: F1: Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen for pole in Singapore
Verstappen said: “I lost quite a bit of time on the first lap in the third quarter. It’s unfortunate, but I knew we had one more run, but then unfortunately I couldn’t finish the lap – otherwise I think we had a really good chance.”
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He added that winning the morning sprint race had given Red Bull confidence again as he and the team aim to end an eight-race winning streak dating back to the Spanish Grand Prix in May.
“It seemed like we were competitive,” he said. “So we made a few minor changes to the car, which felt good. I hope that this will be positive for tomorrow too.”