Lando Norris ‘bad job’ admission in rollercoaster Italian GP quali performance

It was a rollercoaster ride of an Italian Grand Prix qualifying session for Lando Norris, who saw himself teetering on the brink of being knocked out of Q2 before salvaging a lap and charging to outside pole alongside Max Verstappen.

In fact, Norris admitted that it was “impressive” that he’d done “such a bad job” during the early stages of qualifying, yet nevertheless managed to secure a slot on the front row of the grid.

Lando Norris: An Italian qualifying rollercoaster ride

With nine races remaining to decide the F1 2025 championship, qualifying for the tricky Italian Grand Prix was set to be a high-speed spectacle as the field battled for the coveted pole position.

McLaren was a clear favourite for the top slot given its dominance throughout the season, while some hoped Ferrari could channel the homegrown power of the tifosi to start the race from the sharp end of the field.

Yet when the chequered flag flew on the session, it was Max Verstappen who had secured pole position, just pipping Lando Norris’s fastest lap after the British racer managed to recover from a messy session. In fact, he even admitted that it was “impressive” that he managed to do “such a bad job” throughout the three qualifying sessions!

More from the Italian Grand Prix weekend:

? McLaren’s plan to annihilate rivals comes to life at Monza

? Uncovered: Inside Ferrari’s raft of updates for the Italian Grand Prix

While Q1 passed by with few major incidents, Norris squandered his first flying lap in Q2 by clobbering the kerbs and cutting a chicane. McLaren recalled the driver to the pits for a brief inspection before sending him out again.

Norris’ first flying lap got him on the board, but in the closing stages of the session, he found himself outside of the cutline to proceed to Q3. Thankfully, he’d already begun one final flying lap, which proved to be enough to push him through. Then, in Q3, he held pole momentarily, only to be pipped by Verstappen seconds later.

Speaking to media, including PlanetF1.com, in the post-qualifying FIA press conference, Norris was asked if he felt he had done enough in Q3 to secure pole, and the British racer was characteristically candid in his reply.

“I’ll say no, just because it was a pretty bad qualifying from my behalf,” Norris admitted.

“I think it was the best lap I did in quali by, like, six tenths or something — so, impressive that I managed to improve so much. Or, probably impressive that I did such a bad job prior to that!”

According to the McLaren driver, it was a a mess of a session, one where “I was hitting every kerb possible that I don’t want to hit, locking up when I shouldn’t lock up.

“So, just not quite in the rhythm.

“And it’s not that I’ve not been in the rhythm this weekend; I felt like I’ve done some reasonable laps so far this weekend, and I felt like I had some good strengths here and there, but just couldn’t click back into it come quali until the final lap.

“But that’s also the only lap I needed to do it. So I’m happy that I did it in the end.”

Norris confessed that, from the start of FP1, McLaren seemed to be on the back foot somewhat at Monza, at least compared to the rest of the season where dominance has often come quite easily. From that moment on, it was clear that it’d be an uphill battle to scrap for the lead with such slim margins between the top drivers.

Making matters worse, Norris knew that he’d drawn the short end of the stick when it came to favourable qualifying strategy.

He referred to the feeling of leaving the pits first as “terrible,” but confessed that there was no choice.

“Everyone’s waiting for us to go out first,” he explained.

“I mean, I knew already last week that I was going to have a bad Q1 because I knew I was going to have to go out of the pit lane first, and that was always going to be the expectation.

“It’s a tough one, because you know it’s never going to be a pole lap, especially with our straight line speed, which is quite a long way down on pretty much everyone, that it’s impossible to even set a competitive lap.

“It’s not the most reassuring thing, doing Q1 and doing like a 19.5, being five and a half tenths off pole at that point. It’s not the best feeling inside the car. Especially in Q3 run 2, I knew I had a slipstream but it’s hard to know just how much the slipstream is going to help me.”

He was also asked to reflect on the challenge of his final flying lap in Q2, which was the deciding factor between him making it to Q3 and being knocked out in Q2, saying, “I wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve ever been, just because I wasn’t in that rhythm.

“So just to try and put in those laps, especially when you lock up in Turn 1 — that’s the one place, you know, it’s hard; it kind of knocks the confidence.

“My first lap was pretty bad. It was just so close, like, I think I improved on almost a tenth, but it gained me like six positions or something. Shows how such a small amount of lap time can help.

“But yeah, I was definitely feeling it. Both in Q3 run two and Q2 run two, yeah, not the best feelings inside the car at that point.

“So I think that’s why I’m relatively happy to have got into Q3, because I was out for a little while and then to kind of put it all together for Q3 run two as well.”

On Sunday, Norris says he “would definitely want to expect” that McLaren’s long-run pace is sufficient to keep Max Verstappen on his toes, but he also admitted that the Red Bull Racing team has “improved a lot from last year.”

“I think coming into the weekend, we probably didn’t expect the Red Bull to be quite as good, but as soon as we did the first few runs, it was clear that they made some good steps comparing to last season,” Norris said.

“So, we’ll see. [Verstappen’s] race pace was good on Friday. It wasn’t too dissimilar to ours. So time will tell.”

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