Will McLaren disrupt Red Bull’s dominance? Norris talks about his team’s form and chance of pole position

Who is the favourite to win in Japan? Although the word from Red Bull is that the team is back in the right form after the Singapore blip, McLaren are looking very good indeed. Lando Norris confirms that, but he doesn’t see it on pole position on Saturday.

Red Bull’s previous grand prix in Singapore last week was a complete mess. The team has struggled through the race weekend, failing to hit the right set-up over the three days.

As a result, Max Verstappen finished the Singapore Grand Prix in fifth place, with his teammate Sergio Pérez finishing eighth. In Japan, the reigning world champion is plotting his revenge, he simply wants to crush his competition.

Both opening practice sessions have shown that Red Bull is returning to its former strength. Verstappen dominated both the first and second practice sessions, but the time gap between the other teams and the Austrian is gradually shrinking. What’s more, with his teammate Sergio Pérez finishing as high as 11th and 9th.

So there is still a small question mark hanging over Red Bull’s performance, the much bigger question is how McLaren will fare in real race and qualifying pace.

Indeed, Lando Norris was third in both practice sessions, with insiders suggesting that the current C-configuration of McLaren’s monoblocs should be up to three to four tenths of a second quicker. So while everything looks very promising and there is speculation that Norris has a realistic chance of challenging for pole position or victory, the driver himself is taming passions.

I don’t see it for pole position…

“The pace was pretty good, in fact it was one of the best Fridays. We’re rarely this close to Red Bull and the front row. But the car has been pretty chaotic so far. I think most of us have similar problems. It will be due to poor grip,” said Norris in an interview after Friday’s action, also quoted by GP Blog.

“If we can get the car a bit tame and hit the set-up, we can aim high on Sunday. We have the speed, but the handling of the car is difficult. I doubt it will be enough for pole position,” explains the McLaren team leader.

“Winning qualifying is probably a bit too big. But we can fight with Mercedes, which didn’t look at its best today. We can also challenge Ferrari and Aston Martin, both teams are looking good,” Norris concluded.

Source: F1, GP Blog