Lando Norris has admitted he faces a “big challenge” trying to topple Max Verstappen in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, warning that overtaking the Red Bull star will be anything but straightforward.
Norris will line up second on the grid at Monza after being narrowly beaten to pole by Verstappen, who obliterated Lewis Hamilton’s 2020 track record in the Mercedes W11.
It was far from a smooth qualifying for the McLaren driver. He only scraped through to Q2 with a late effort, helped by the slipstream from teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri. Then in Q3, with no tow on his first run, he languished down in seventh. Norris briefly seized provisional pole, but Verstappen’s final lap crushed that hope.
“No, no, no. Max has been quicker this weekend, and it’s never a surprise with Max,” Norris said at Monza. “It was quite a session for me — up and down, too many mistakes here and there — but to pull it all together on the last lap, I was pretty happy. I’m happy with P2.
“I always judge my result by how I drove today. I didn’t do the best job, but to end up P2, I was so happy with. So, let’s say good things and bad things.
“P2 is still not a bad position to be off the line. I want to be ahead of everyone — that includes my championship contenders and Oscar. It’s a good position for tomorrow, and I’m excited for the race.”
“Big challenge” ahead
With Verstappen’s straight-line speed advantage and dominant long-run pace from FP2, Norris knows Sunday will be a fight.
“Our race on Sunday is normally our strength,” Norris explained. “But to get past Max, I’m sure it’s going to be a big challenge, but we’ll see. Their pace was also very strong. If you see the end of the stint, they’re doing the same lap times as us. So I don’t expect any magical things, and we have some Ferraris behind.
“I’m sure we’re going to want to come through as quickly as possible. So it’s a long race. Many things can happen, and we’ll see what we can do.”
