Lando Norris felt he should have been on the front row of the grid for tomorrow's British Grand Prix, if not on outright pole, if only he'd pulled off the perfect final qualifying lap he knew he was capable of.
Norris will start from third place on the grid tomorrow, on the second row of the brid alongside Red Bull's Max Verstappen, with Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row.
The McLaren driver's best Q3 lap was 1:26.030s, just over two tenths off the pole time set by Russell. Norris said that he should have been able to match that if not for an error on his final attempt.
Norris confirmed that he had abandoned his final lap after he "just ran wide" out of Chapel. "It was super close. I think if I'd put in a good enough lap it was close and could've been a bit of a fight.
Even by that point he was already 0.15s behind the pace set by the Mercedes. "I think George and Lewis did a great job. For two cars to get there shows the team were also doing an amazing job."
"They did an excellent job and [it was] a little mistake on my part in the end," he admitted. "But P3 is still good. I am happy with P3, with three Brits in the top three. It's pretty cool.
"But it's tough," he sighed when interviewed in parc ferme after the end of a wet-dry qualifying session. "This team have been very quick all weekend since FP1, so [we were] there or thereabouts, I just didn't deliver it today."
As for his prospects in the race, Norris denied that it was a foregone conclusion that he would be able to get ahead of Russell and Hamilton when the lights go out on Sunday although that was certainly his intention.
"We're quick, I can bring the fight to George and I can bring the fight to Lewis, so I'm excited to put on a good show," he said. "We're going to have some good battles, so I'm looking forward to it.
"But if you look at last year, Mercedes were probably one of the quickest in the race. Potentially the quickest," he said, looking back at the 2023 race when Verstappen won ahead of Norris and Hamilton.
"So I expect them to be very quick tomorrow, especially because they can look after their front tyres very well. They have a very good front end," he said. "And I think that's going to be a very good saviour for them tomorrow.
"The conditions are going to be tricky," he added. "I just want it to rain again so I am excited, it is going to be a good race.
"We're there, we've been very quick in races over the last two months. It's probably actually been one of our strengths, race pace over quali pace.
"This is a very different type of circuit, with the [high speed] layout," he acknowledged. "But it's still a strength and hopefully it comes up towards us tomorrow."
Norris will be renewing hostilities with Verstappen after the dramatic climax to their battle in Austria. Verstappen suffered floor damage in Q1 today but this will be fixed in time for tomorrow's race.
Norris' McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri will be lining up immediately behind the pair in fifth place, making it a potentially explosive start to the race. He admitted that he too has "just got it wrong" on his final Q3 lap.
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