\n<\/p>\n
Lando Norris was keen to manage expectations after securing fourth on the grid for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, insisting that McLaren would \u201chave to push like crazy\u201d to gain positions from their competitors.<\/span><\/p>\n After enduring a pair of retirements in Canada and Monaco, the reigning World Champion was optimistic that he would find his rhythm and return to the points this weekend, which was made slightly trickier after he sat out of FP1 for rookie driver Leonardo Fornaroli<\/a>.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t seem to set him back as he went fastest in FP2<\/a> and placed fourth in final practice<\/a>, but while Norris<\/a>\u2019 strong form carried over into Qualifying<\/a>, his first run in Q3 was cut short by a red flag after Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc crashed into the barriers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n With just a few minutes to set a representative time, he ended the session just 0.003s adrift of Kimi Antonelli<\/a> and took P4 as a result, putting him in contention for a podium in the race which gets underway at 1500 local time on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second lap was my only chance to put a lap time on the board and then you just can\u2019t take quite the same risks at a few of the corners, as I did on lap one,\u201d Norris explained. \u201cWe were just unfortunate out there today.<\/p>\n \u201cAsk me if I can go [three-thousandths] quicker and I\u2019ll say yes, but ask Kimi and he\u2019ll say he can probably go two or three-tenths quicker. We have to be happy with today and I did some good laps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI would love to fight the guys ahead but the gap to them was big today. If it was like a one-tenth gap to pole, I would say yeah \u2013 three-and-a-half-tenths is\u2026 it just means they have more grip.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means they have a better balanced car and that\u2019s going to be hard to beat on a day like tomorrow where everything\u2019s about tyre degradation, keeping the car smooth and gentle, keeping the tyres cool.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us to keep up tomorrow, we\u2019re going to have to push like crazy, which means overheat the tyres and maybe do a five-stop! I think racing the guys ahead will be tough but if we have a chance, we\u2019ll go for it, especially with a long run down to Turn 1.<\/p>\n \u201cOtherwise, it\u2019s just trying to maximise points, maximise our opportunities but not be faltered by trying to overachieve.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n His team mate Oscar Piastri<\/a> appeared similarly realistic about what he can accomplish in the 66-lap race, which he won from pole position last season. This time around, he wound up P7 after being demoted by Isack Hadjar<\/a> late in Q3, finishing around four-tenths adrift of George Russell<\/a>\u2019s pole lap time.<\/p>\n Prompted to reflect on his final effort, Piastri said: \u201cIt was a good lap until the last sector. I\u2019m not really sure where all the time went away but until that point, it was strong.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously very close margins out there. Could\u2019ve dealt with that little bit extra I had out there, so a shame, but we\u2019ll see what the race is going to be like tomorrow. It\u2019s going to be a race of car pace throughout a stint, not just over a lap, so let\u2019s see what we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve not really seen anyone in these kinds of conditions at a circuit like this with so much degradation. I think Mercedes<\/a> are going to be very strong and I think Ferrari<\/a> probably will be too. As for us, difficult to know at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Lando Norris was keen to manage expectations after securing fourth on the grid for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, insisting that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_animmysite_disable_animation":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.formula1.com\/image\/upload\/c_lfill,w_2048\/q_auto\/v1740000001\/trackside-images\/2026\/F1_Grand_Prix_of_Barcelona_Catalunya___Qualifying\/2281408677.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"