Lando Norris fired back at his critics, stating that ‘people like to make a lot of things up’ after scoring pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix. The Brit was frustrated with the narrative surrounding his sprint qualifying effort, which left him over six tenths of a second behind team-mate Oscar Piastri.
The eight-time Grand Prix winner explained this deficit after the sprint race in an interview with Sky Sports F1, claiming that he had what it took to beat Piastri to pole and that with another lap, he would have put things together. After crossing the line in third place earlier in the day, Norris was hungry for revenge when qualifying got underway. He executed an excellent session, pipping his team-mate to the P1 grid slot despite failing to go faster on his final Q3 run.
Speaking to Nico Rosberg after qualifying, Norris took the opportunity to call out his critics. “It was a decent lap, so [I’m] happy,” he said. “Everyone was pretty worried after yesterday.
“I wasn’t even that far off. It was just a couple of little issues that we had. So I was confident after yesterday and confident coming into today, so it was nice to see I could get back to the top.
“Three tenths is just slipstream and not being first out of the pit lane, so it was nothing to worry about. But people like to make a lot of things up, but I felt good. The car has been flying all weekend, Oscar has been doing a good job all weekend, so we are pushing each other a lot.”
For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.
While Norris was delighted with his fourth pole position of the season, his team-mate was left frustrated. Piastri extended his championship lead to nine points with his second-place finish in the sprint race, but with rain expected on Sunday, the potential is there for a significant points swing in the title fight.
“A bit disappointing,” the 24-year-old said, assessing his P2 starting grid slot. “The second lap was coming together really well, and I just made a little mistake into [Turn] 14 and lost a lot of time.
“Disappointed. I felt like the car was very good again, but it’s fine margins out there. It’s obviously not a bad place to be starting, but there was more in it, which is always disappointing.”