Lando Norris, who qualified ahead of his championship rival Max Verstappen for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Sprint, isn’t shy about his feelings towards relentless questions about the Dutchman. Despite securing a front-row start for McLaren, Norris, who trails Verstappen by 47 points with four races left in the season, made it clear he’s not interested in championship talk.
“I don’t care. I hate these questions so much,” Norris stated in his post-qualifying interview. “I’m just going to race. I don’t care about where he qualifies. For me, it’s just focus on my own job and that’s it. It’s the same question every time but it doesn’t matter. If he’s first, if he’s last, I’ll do the best I can.”
The Briton, who secured a front-row start alongside teammate Oscar Piastri, remained focused on his own performance, despite the encouraging qualifying position. Norris, however, acknowledged a few missteps on his final lap in the Sprint Qualifying, ultimately leading to Piastri claiming pole position. “I made too many mistakes on my final lap and just boxed, but a good job as a team,” Norris admitted. “I wasn’t expecting it, so a pleasant surprise. Just a couple too many mistakes on my final lap, that’s all.”
Despite McLaren’s impressive showing on Friday, Norris is refusing to get ahead of himself. “Tomorrow’s a completely different day so we’ll see. We definitely made some good steps forward. I’m happy with today but we’ll see in the Sprint tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Verstappen faced a more challenging qualifying session. He struggled with the bumpy surface of the resurfaced Interlagos track, which he believes particularly hampered his RB20 car. “As soon as we went into qualifying it looked like we were definitely off, so the car was a bit difficult on the bumps,” Verstappen said. “They did the resurfacing but I think they actually made it worse to drive. It’s extremely bumpy everywhere so that’s not good for our car. In all the bumpy areas the car is jumping around a lot and it’s costing me quite a bit of time, unfortunately.”
Adding to Verstappen’s troubles is a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix after fitting a new engine. He faces a difficult task in Saturday’s Sprint, admitting his car is unlikely to improve significantly. “Normally, when you are already quite a bit off over one lap, I don’t think we are particularly the strongest in the race. So we’ll have to see how that goes tomorrow in the Sprint.”
With the possibility of rain looming, Verstappen is clinging to a glimmer of hope. “I also know that there is maybe some weather around that can come but maybe not for the Sprint. We’ll have a look.”
Verstappen’s challenging weekend comes after a controversial Mexico City Grand Prix, where he received two penalties for incidents with Norris. The Dutchman faces an uphill battle to salvage a positive result from this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, which concludes Formula 1’s Americas triple-header.
