Norris mindful of need to keep track position after tight pole battle

Lando Norris is confident he has the race pace to pull away from the field in the Singapore Grand Prix, as long as he can hold onto the lead from pole position.

The McLaren driver has never led at the end of an opening lap whenever he has started from pole position in either a race or a Sprint event, a run that most recently saw Max Verstappen overtake him at Zandvoort. On that occasion, Norris repassed Verstappen in the opening stint and went on to dominate the race, and he believes he has the performance again to pull clear if he can retain position at the front.

“We've been very good all weekend,” Norris said. “People have caught up --  clearly Max improved a lot from yesterday into today. Mercedes as well -- they were very quick in Q2, so they were there on my tail, a bit close for my liking, comparing to what I had in kind of FP3 and things.

“I’m confident that the car's good in both quali and race. We showed that already on Friday. So confident if I can just get ahead, then I get my head down and can go away.”

Despite feeling that he didn’t put together his best lap in Q3, Norris still rates his pole position highly because of the risk of making a mistake on the only run at the end of the session, as he beat Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

“When I get as many as they both have, then maybe some will feel a bit crap comparing to others! But poles still are pretty awesome for me and you still have to do a nice lap," he said.

“I think it showed with where we were as a team that the car was quick, but still not easy to drive on a day like today. Still easy to make mistakes and could easily have not been on pole today. So at the same time, I still feel like I have to go out and perform well. I feel like I did exactly the same and I was on it just as much last weekend; things just didn't turn out that way because of other circumstances.

“But I've not had it bother me too much. Like I said, Saturday night and coming into Sunday last week, I just concentrated on the next one and did what I had to do. I was performing very well in Baku -- I was quick all weekend. So I felt like I could easily have fought for a podium and for the win, but it wasn't to be. But I maximized that day and I'll go out there tomorrow and try and do a similar thing.”