Lando Norris 'not too disappointed' to miss out on pole position in China

After Sprint qualifying below expectations this Friday (Oscar piastri 3th, Lando Norris 6th), the McLaren are back on the front row at the Shanghai International Circuit thanks to Piastri, who took his first Grand Prix pole position. His British teammate will have to settle for a third-place start behind George Russell.

“Of course, it’s always disappointing not to be on pole but Oscar deserved it, conceded the winner of the first meeting of the 2025 season in Australia at the microphone of the F1. He did a great job all weekend, I'm happy for him. It's his first pole in F1. It's always nice." The Bristol native maintains his team spirit despite the message sent by his younger brother.

A Sprint Race to Forget for Norris

While Free Practice 1 suggested a better weekend for Norris and the McLarens, the tide turned in Sprint Qualifying. In the first race of the weekend this Saturday, won by Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), the Briton made a mistake at the start and had to settle for eighth place. “I made a few mistakes again, but the car seemed a little bit better today, I felt better today with it, he analyzed after his third place. It's a step in the right direction compared to yesterday when I was in a lot of pain and also this morning, but we're in a much better dynamic. I'm not too disappointed."

Having performed very well since the start of the season, the car Papaya color sometimes seems difficult to pilot for Norris. "As I've said several times, the car is very sharp, he explained. It's always enough in terms of speed, but today it wasn't quite that."

Between his mistakes and the car's particular behavior, the Briton will have to continue to tame it according to the improvements made during the Chinese round. "We changed a lot of things (between the sprint race and qualifying. Ed.) because we were nowhere, Norris confided. It's not easy to make improvements between qualifying and the race, but we'll see how it goes."

Join us tomorrow, Sunday, at 8 a.m. to follow the race live with commentary on AUTOhebdo and see who will win between #4 and #81.

F1 Chinese GP

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