IMOLA, Italy — Lando Norris never doubted that Max Verstappen was the man to beat in qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, despite the world champion's poor start to the weekend.
Verstappen was in a bad mood during practice at Imola, with several off-track moments, but recovered on Saturday to take a record eighth consecutive pole position.
Oscar Piastri and his teammate Norris, winner of the Miami Grand Prix two weeks ago, battled Verstappen in their McLarens, but came up short.
Although Verstappen's assessment that McLaren has closed the gap appears to be true at the Imola circuit, Norris said he never doubted that Verstappen had suddenly pulled back.
“I know Max hasn't had the best weekend, but I think if anyone doubts that Red Bull or him will come back and do a good job in qualifying, they're a bit stupid,” said Norris, after having secured third. place on the grill.
“I really hoped he would return to the track, it bothers me to lose him once again in qualifying. But we are close and I think we are happy as a team. We have all performed. If we can continue and have a strong race pace like the one we had yesterday and like the one we had in Miami, I think we can have a good race.”
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Verstappen has been very comfortable in most races of late, winning 21 of the 24 races since last May.
Asked if he would prefer a closer fight, Verstappen laughed and said: “I mean, I would prefer to qualify eight tenths ahead, but that's not possible.”
“It's a lot of fun when you had a change like we had. I was very excited in qualifying and very happy when I heard we were on pole. So yeah, it was cool that we were on pole and we really had to fight.” for it.”
Given the difficulties encountered in the three hours of track time before qualifying, Verstappen said his lap felt very special.
He added: “In the last two years, I would definitely say it's one of the best. Because it's been a while since I feel like we've been so far away. I mean, Singapore. [last year], we were free all weekend, so it was a terrible weekend. But here we were also quite far away and then we managed to turn it around. So it must be at least five, six years, I don't really remember being able to turn it around like that.
He said the car still hadn't felt right in Saturday's final practice.
“We keep working,” Verstappen said. “Even this morning it wasn't good. I kept trying to improve the balance of the car, because yesterday and this morning it was moving a little bit everywhere.”
“Honestly, I came into qualifying thinking, 'if we could get into the top five, I'd be happy because this weekend has been really difficult.' There really wasn't any reference before qualifying.”
