Land Norris predicts that the Japanese Grand Prix is ”a nervous” due to the weather.
Verstappen scored a shock pole position on the final lap of qualifying on Saturday, edging Norris in just 0.012 and 0.044 seconds. The McLaren pair was the fastest up to that point, but in races where it is more likely to be susceptible to rain, it will start with the second and third in races where Norris knows he can present both challenges and opportunities.
“No one knows what the weather will be like tomorrow, so there’s no point in trying to think about too much,” Norris said. “We’re going to do our homework tonight, and it’s probably going to be a little race like Melbourne, which was an exciting race for everyone.
“Now I have to try and pass some, so we’ll see.
Norris says McLaren is far more than his preferences in Suzuka than China, who finished second on Piastri, but admits that after a wide advance in the first run, he couldn’t find enough time in the Q3, leaving the door open for Verstappen’s knee.
“I’m two tenths faster than the Q2 lap, so it wasn’t enough, but only a little bit,” he explained. “It’s a track that you just kind of chip away in different areas…and commit a little more at those high speed corners.
“But I was pretty pleased with my knee. I honestly tried to push more in Q3 run 1, but it didn’t work out clearly, so I had to peg a lot of it.
“The margin is very small. I think it was a hundredth, but it’s not enough for Paul.”
There were similar feelings from the piastry. Piastri felt that the first sector was poor and missed Paul’s position.
“It wasn’t my best, the sector’s – I think I lost a bit of time compared to the first lap of the third quarter,” Piastri said. “And when the gap is 1/400 from the first to third, you think about it quite a bit.
“I was pretty comfortable in qualifying. I think the first lap on the third lap was good. The second lap is a bit farther away in a few places.
“I had to dial a little more this weekend than I had last race, and it took me a bit longer to get there, but looking at the margins and their performance, I was pretty happy.