Norris won McLaren battle with ‘decent’ lap

Lando Norris may have come from behind to win the McLaren qualifying battle but he insists it wasn’t the “best lap” of his life.

The McLaren drivers went into the final qualifying session of this season in Abu Dhabi tied on 10 apiece after Norris levelled the score in Brazil.

With both the Brit and Carlos Sainz making it through to Q3 the battle was on.

Sainz had the upper hand after the first run in Q3 but Norris pulled it back.

The rookie clocked a 1:36.436 to beat his team-mate by 0.023s.

He won the qualifying war.

“That’s the only thing anyone has said, nice job being 11-10 in qualifying,” he told Sky F1.

“I’m very happy.

“It was a tough one as you can tell. I made a mistake, was two places down, so I’m happy.

“It was nice and it was a good lap, didn’t make any big mistakes.

“It was just decent, wasn’t amazing or the best lap of my life.

“It was just controlling the tyres, not spinning. Just a good lap.”

However, winning the McLaren team-mate qualifying battle isn’t the aim of the game.

Rather it is closing the gap to Mercedes and challenging of Lewis Hamilton for pole position.

“Still a long way to go,” admitted Norris. “1.6s to Lewis Hamilton

“This year we have been constantly getting better.

“Renault have been more consistent but when we’ve put it together we’ve had the P6s or P5s.”

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