SILVERSTONE, U.K. — Lando Norris said he was watching the giant TV screens dotted around the Silverstone circuit to see if he could hold on to what would have been a shock pole position for the British Grand Prix.
The late lap that put Norris top of the timing screens prompted huge cheers from the British crowd, only for Verstappen to snatch pole back a few seconds later with a 1:26.720, 0.2 seconds quicker than the McLaren driver’s time.
“Always Max! He always ruins everything for everyone,” Norris joked after qualifying.
“Pretty insane, my last lap was a good lap. I could hear Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] on the radio on the in-lap, which was the best thing ever.”
Despite Verstappen spoiling the party, Norris stayed second when all the times had been set, with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri finishing third.
Asked if he ever felt he had pole, Norris admitted he was surprised to be so high up.
“There’s a lot of TV screens around the circuit, I was trying to watch every single one possible. I was surprised how long I stayed in the top four,” he said.
“It just kind of depended on when Max was going to cross the line. I guess I’m a little bit surprised, I wasn’t expecting for us to be here, or myself to be here anyway. We’re very happy with the result.
“It was more if Max made a mistake rather than if we were quicker than him.
“I put a good lap in, no mistakes, it was a much cleaner lap than my Q3 run one. But it was a good quali, I think P1 in Q1, I think P1 in Q2 and almost P1 in Q3, but not quite. But I’m still happy with that.”
Third on the grid is the best of Piastri’s rookie F1 career.
The Australian driver said: “It’s been a great day, even this weekend, we thought we could get into the top 10 at least.
“When the conditions were looking like they were, it’s generally been solid for us previously. I think we went in quietly confident that we could pull off something pretty special and we managed to do it.
“Great performance myself but for us to be second and third was amazing for the whole team.”