Lando Norris admitted he is “sad” his pole position for the F1 Chinese Grand Prix sprint race was not set in “proper qualifying”.
The McLaren driver beat Lewis Hamilton to claim pole for the first sprint race of the season by 1.2 seconds in a chaotic and rain-hit qualifying session in Shanghai.
Norris had his fastest lap deleted for a track limits infringement before it was reinstated in the closing minutes of a dramatic qualifying session.
“I didn’t do the first few two laps like well at all and I got a good final one: a good enough one for pole. So I’m happy. Sad it is not for proper qualifying, but good enough,” Norris said.
The Briton said he took an “all-or-nothing” approach to secure pole with his last lap of SQ3 after aborting his previous two efforts.
“It was tricky,” he explained. “You’re always nervous going into a session like this, especially for quali when you know it’s going to rain. I know I was quite happy with how it was in the dry; I think we have had good pace all weekend so far.
“So I got a bit nervous but the conditions were you have just got to risk a lot, you have got to push, build tyre temperature and so forth.
Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL38. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 5,…
“The first two I aborted on both, so I was like: the last lap was all or nothing. But it’s getting wetter and wetter. So actually the conditions for the final two laps were a lot worse than the second lap at least.
“I was a little bit nervous that I made a few mistakes, started to aquaplane quite a bit. But it’s good fun. It gets your heart going. To end up on top is exactly what we wanted.”
Norris will have an opportunity to claim his first F1 win in Saturday’s sprint race.
“We did some of our work this morning, we did some consecutive laps to try and understand. But it depends what the weather is. There’s still a chance of rain tomorrow, so if it’s like this, then I think the chances are relatively decent,” he said of his victory chances.
“But the race is still very different to qualifying so I’m sure everyone’s going to catch up a bit tomorrow. But the pace is good whether it’s wet or dry, and I think we’re in a good position.”