Lando Norris, delighted pole-sitter in Brazil: "When I put everything together, I'm at the top."

The mirror season of Lando Norris et Oscar piastri continues a little further after this qualifying session at Interlagos (Brazil). While the Briton started the year in a messy fashion, making several costly mistakes, his teammate Oscar Piastri was stringing together good results and widening his gap at the top of the championship.

Since the summer, the roles have reversed, and Norris continues, with metronomic regularity, to outmaneuver a Piastri who has been nowhere to be seen week after week. The No. 4 driver delivered another blow to his main rival in qualifying by securing pole position, his fifteenth in the season. Formula 1, thus surpassing James Hunt, Alberto Ascari and Ronnie Peterson.

The championship leader managed to transcend himself at the opportune moment after an indecisive start to the session, where the usual second-stringers showed themselves. "It was difficult once again; with the conditions, it was inconsistently slippery." explains Norris, who had a similar speech after the sprint qualifying where he had already secured pole position. “But it was fun, always a pleasure to be on this circuit,” he continued. “I felt good, I was under a bit of pressure because my first attempt was unsuccessful in Q3, so a bit more pressure than I would have liked. But I stayed calm and put everything together when it mattered.”

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Norris is wary of Mercedes

The Bristol native is establishing himself as the man in form at the moment, especially when Max Verstappen must settle for the 16th fastest time, due to a Red Bull capricious. “Yes, I’m in great shape.” Norris approves. “The team gives me a very good car, I have to thank them for that. I didn’t make things easy for myself, or for them, but I really attacked from the start. Maybe I put unnecessary pressure on myself, but in the end we did a good job. When I’m in a good rhythm, when I manage to stay calm, when I put everything together, I’m really at the top.” rightly affirms number 4, who has secured his 6th pole of the year, one less than Verstappen, one more than Piastri.

The challenge now is to convert this into a race, where his main rival will once again be Kimi Antonelli, who was already second in sprint qualifying and in the first race of the weekend, during which he put a lot of pressure on Norris. " I know that Mercedes is very fast, Kimi attacks to the very end without giving up anything,” Norris continues. "It will be a big challenge tomorrow, we'll see what the weather is like. It's been clean for six weekends and I hope they don't ruin that."

He needs to get a flying start to avoid being challenged by his pursuers. The Brazilian Grand Prix will start at 18 p.m. French time and can be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr.