F1 News: Max Verstappen's Hilarious Reaction To Lando Norris P3 Qualifying
Today's qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix gave fans one hell of an exciting event with a bit of rain plunging the session into chaos. We had cars flying off the track into the gravel, strategy failures, and a mixed grid good enough to make the cost cap look like it was almost working. And while we were unsurprised by Max Verstappen's perfect P1 finish and Carlos Sainz's elegant run to P2, we were glad to see McLaren's Lando Norris in P3. And when getting out of his car, Verstappen's reaction to this was hilarious.
Lando has been fighting for a car with the pace to match his driving for a long time. And whether today was down to a bit of luck, track-specific performance, or sheer performance from the McLaren, fans of the sport were more than happy to see the young British driver in the top 3.
As qualifying came to an end and the three leading cars pulled up into parc ferme, Max had to double-take as he spotted the white, orange, and black McLaren sat next to his RB19 before giving his friend a thumbs up and a handshake.
In a press conference after the session, Verstappen commented on seeing his friend alongside him in the top three.
"I also expected Carlos to be there, I just didn’t expect Lando to be there, but that’s a good surprise! Well, sorry! I didn’t expect McLaren to be there! Sorry, I have to rephrase. I always expect Lando to be high up!"
The bromance between Lando and Verstappen is certainly strong today, and it's lovely to see as both drivers enjoy their success. The McLaren driver isn't feeling so optimistic going into tomorrow, however.
“It’s really just hold on for dear life,” he admitted to Sky Sports F1 when asked what his plan is for tomorrow's race. “Top 10. We’ll see. We didn’t expect to be so good today. If I made one little mistake, I was what? Four, five, six positions back almost.
“So I’ll be careful when it says like we were exceptional today or we were amazing today because, in the end, there’s always little things in driving. Maybe someone made a one-tenth mistake, and then it was five or six drivers split by just over a tenth and a half.
“So yeah, I’ll give myself some some credit – a little bit of credit – but, at the same time, that can easily turn around tomorrow in terms of extra race pace.
“Red Bull always take a step forward come Sunday, Aston are always incredible on Sunday race pace.
“I wouldn’t say it’s our strongest area. But, yeah, hopefully it’s just another surprise like today and we’ll see.”