LAS VEGAS — Lando Norris revealed he took a nap shortly before qualifying at the Las Vegas Grand Prix and, on waking up to heavy rain, did not expect to secure pole position in the wet conditions.
The championship leader beat Max Verstappen to the fastest time by 0.323 seconds after hooking up a tidy lap on his final attempt in Q3.
His McLaren teammate and closest championship rival Oscar Piastri qualified fifth, meaning Norris will have the opportunity to take another big step towards his first world title if he wins Saturday evening’s race in Las Vegas.
Norris started the weekend playing down McLaren’s chances on the street circuit, and said he did not expect to be in the running for pole when he awoke to rain in the paddock.
“To be honest I was having a quick nap before qualifying and I was expecting it to be dry, but I woke up and saw that it was raining,” he said.
“I thought oh crap, this isn’t going to go well but no one has driven around here in the rain before and it’s difficult to know what to expect.”
Norris said he was surprised by the performance of his McLaren on such a low-grip track surface.
“I proved myself wrong in terms of the expectation being pretty low coming into this weekend,” he added. “Even on Wednesday in the press conference then, I wasn’t expecting too much or my expectations were definitely not high, so for us to show some good performance yesterday, this morning as well in practice before some of the issues we had, I already felt pretty good.
“I actually felt quite confident that if it was going to be a dry quali, we would be challenging and it would be tight but we could be challenging for pole. So, when I woke up from my nap before quali, I wasn’t too happy that the fact that I saw it raining because it’s always just a bit more chaos.
“I’ve not been the most confident over the course of this year, especially at the beginning [of the year] with these conditions with the car, it can be quite tricky at times but from the first lap [in qualifying], I actually felt pretty good in the car and that turned into a good result.”
Norris will start the race ahead of Verstappen’s Red Bull in second place and the Williams of Carlos Sainz in third, but said he was taking nothing for granted despite the strong qualifying pace.
“I don’t think I’ve done more than like four laps in a row [during practice], so I’ve got no idea on the kind of stints there will be and things like that,” he said. “So, yeah, many questions, probably for everyone.
“I’m sure not many people have run the hard tyre, that kind of thing and, yeah, I don’t really know. So, the pace has been strong, it’s been better than it has been last year, that’s for sure.
“So, I expect to be fighting up there but with Max, with Carlos, you know — I’m sure they’re both going to want to be pushing, it’s good opportunities for them.
“So, yeah, it’s going to be a long race, many things can happen. Obviously, if it’s dry, it’s a bit more simple for everyone. But I’m in the best position that I can be, so I’m happy for now.”
