Norris accepts McLaren will ‘have to push like crazy’ to fight rivals in Barcelona

Lando Norris was keen to manage expectations after securing fourth on the grid for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, insisting that McLaren would “have to push like crazy” to gain positions from their competitors.

After enduring a pair of retirements in Canada and Monaco, the reigning World Champion was optimistic that he would find his rhythm and return to the points this weekend, which was made slightly trickier after he sat out of FP1 for rookie driver Leonardo Fornaroli.

It didn’t seem to set him back as he went fastest in FP2 and placed fourth in final practice, but while Norris’ strong form carried over into Qualifying, his first run in Q3 was cut short by a red flag after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed into the barriers.

With just a few minutes to set a representative time, he ended the session just 0.003s adrift of Kimi Antonelli and took P4 as a result, putting him in contention for a podium in the race which gets underway at 1500 local time on Sunday.

“The second lap was my only chance to put a lap time on the board and then you just can’t take quite the same risks at a few of the corners, as I did on lap one,” Norris explained. “We were just unfortunate out there today.

“Ask me if I can go [three-thousandths] quicker and I’ll say yes, but ask Kimi and he’ll say he can probably go two or three-tenths quicker. We have to be happy with today and I did some good laps.

“I would love to fight the guys ahead but the gap to them was big today. If it was like a one-tenth gap to pole, I would say yeah – three-and-a-half-tenths is… it just means they have more grip.

“It means they have a better balanced car and that’s going to be hard to beat on a day like tomorrow where everything’s about tyre degradation, keeping the car smooth and gentle, keeping the tyres cool.

“For us to keep up tomorrow, we’re going to have to push like crazy, which means overheat the tyres and maybe do a five-stop! I think racing the guys ahead will be tough but if we have a chance, we’ll go for it, especially with a long run down to Turn 1.

“Otherwise, it’s just trying to maximise points, maximise our opportunities but not be faltered by trying to overachieve.”

His team mate Oscar Piastri appeared similarly realistic about what he can accomplish in the 66-lap race, which he won from pole position last season. This time around, he wound up P7 after being demoted by Isack Hadjar late in Q3, finishing around four-tenths adrift of George Russell’s pole lap time.

Prompted to reflect on his final effort, Piastri said: “It was a good lap until the last sector. I’m not really sure where all the time went away but until that point, it was strong.

“Obviously very close margins out there. Could’ve dealt with that little bit extra I had out there, so a shame, but we’ll see what the race is going to be like tomorrow. It’s going to be a race of car pace throughout a stint, not just over a lap, so let’s see what we’ve got.

“We’ve not really seen anyone in these kinds of conditions at a circuit like this with so much degradation. I think Mercedes are going to be very strong and I think Ferrari probably will be too. As for us, difficult to know at the moment.”