Lando Norris has ‘nothing to prove’ at Hungarian Grand Prix
Pole-sitter Lando Norris says he has nothing to prove in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, despite not having won since his maiden victory in Miami in May.
Norris said a one-two on the grid with team-mate Oscar Piastri alongside him and ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen is “definitely once again a good opportunity [to win] for both of us and for us as a team to score some big points, and that’s the target”.
But he rejected suggestions that it was important to lay down a marker after challenging for wins in Imola, Canada, Spain, Austria and the UK but just missing out.
The Briton said: “Every single qualifying is important and every single race is important. It’s not all of a sudden I need to do it and prove my point – I don’t.
“We have done the best we could in every race. We have shown great pace and opportunities.
“I know we have missed out on some and we don’t need to go back into all that stuff.”
Norris said before the race weekend that McLaren had “definitely been the most consistent team” since introducing a big upgrade package in Miami, but “I don’t think we’ve had a dominant weekend”.
So far, Hungary is the closest they have come. Norris was fastest in Friday practice and in the final session on Saturday before qualifying, and again in the second session of a difficult wet-dry qualifying period before taking pole.
Norris managed to take pole despite only having one one set of new tyres for the final session while his rivals had two.
Norris was 0.328 seconds quicker than Verstappen. But after Piastri and Verstappen had used their second set of new tyres, Piastri closed to within 0.022secs and Verstappen 0.046secs.
It was McLaren’s first one-two on the grid since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, when Lewis Hamilton led Jenson Button.
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