Lando Norris' US GP message for Verstappen after verdict on best lap of my career

Lando Norris felt his pole lap in Austin was among the best of his career, but that the pace among the top cars ahead of the race is “closer than people think”.

Norris secured pole position ahead of Saturday's United States Grand Prix by three hundredths of a second over title rival Max Verstappen, with the session abandoned late after George Russell crashed out at Turn 19.

Lando Norris counts pole position at the US Grand Prix as one of the “best of my career”

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Norris revealed that there had been setup changes to his McLaren between the sprint and qualifying that helped his cause, but added that he was “still struggling big” on his best lap.

With the field set for a close race, the Brit is looking forward to resuming his battle with Verstappen in the battle at the front, with the pair set to line up together on the front row on Sunday.

“I think it was probably the best of my career,” Norris told media outlets such as PlanetF1.com after qualifying. “Yes, it was just a very nice round.

“I kind of set the bar too high because in my second round I was like, 'Guys, I don't think I'm going to improve much here.' I mean, I got everything out of the car.

“We changed a lot today from the sprint race to qualifying and definitely took a step forward. But man, I still had big problems.

“So I knew I had to risk a little more and give that little bit extra and it just came together perfectly.” But it definitely wasn't a round I could have repeated, so I'm very happy because I really didn't have it expected to be here today.

“I think we're still a little bit off, but we're in a good position. I think our pace is probably a little more similar compared to Max yesterday and today.

“I probably expected the Ferraris and Mercedes to be a little quicker today, but maybe they just got a little more out of the car at the start of the weekend and we were just able to take a bigger step forward between the sprint and now.”

“Maybe we have caught up a bit, but it will be a tough race. I mean, Ferrari was very quick in reducing power today in the race.

“Max is Max. I've always said Max is Max and they're going to be fast, so I'm excited. I think it will be a good fight and probably a fight worth watching.”

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When asked about his belief that McLaren was off the pace compared to Red Bull this weekend, Norris explained that the team had not been the fastest car at every race in recent months, despite popular belief that The MCL38 appears to be the best all-rounder on the starting grid.

“People would probably hate me if I said that, but I don't think so… We've definitely had the best car for several races in the last two, three months and for some races this year, but definitely not for every race.” Norris explained.

“Singapore was, I think we can confidently say, we were the best. Baku, just the race before, even though Oscar (Piastri) won, I think he won because he drove better than the others, and I think Red Bull and Ferrari were both faster again.

“People may not agree with it – this is our version of events.” That's what we think as a team. We believe that. So if we go back two races ago, we wouldn't be the fastest car.

“We were in Singapore last time and the perception changes based on certain things. When you're on the team and you actually know where you stand, where you stand in relation to other teams, I can say those things confidently and say where I think we're at and where we're not.

“Sometimes I’m wrong, but today my lap was also very good. I couldn't have gone a tenth and a half or probably faster than the lap I did today. This shows that we are not that fast, but it is difficult to know exactly where we have a little more problems.

“There are various reasons. Compared to the Red Bulls, we find it difficult to push through and drive at high speed, and compared to the Ferraris, their slow speed is incredible.

“And I think even if we go back to Singapore where we dominated, Ferrari was very fast all weekend until qualifying. You made some mistakes.

“I think in the last stint Charles (Leclerc) was the fastest car on the track on the hard tyre. So it's just a matter of knowing information before you can make certain comments and I think it's always been closer than people think, even if we dominated some weekends.

“And here we're just not quite as fast and maybe the others have taken a few steps forward and it's a little different. I don't have an exact answer. I just drive the car. But that’s my feeling and in some ways our feeling as a team.”

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