Lando Norris has secured pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix in triumphant style, with the McLaren racer pumping in a time over three tenths of a second clear of nearest challenger Max Verstappen.

After putting himself on provisional pole during the initial runs in Q3, Norris bettered that effort by setting a sensational lap of 1m 09.673s in the McLaren. This pushed Verstappen down into second place, with the Dutchman’s time 0.356s back.

Oscar Piastri scored third place for McLaren, while George Russell was the lead Mercedes in fourth. Sergio Perez also enjoyed a better qualifying than recent weekends, the Mexican putting his Red Bull into fifth.

Qualifying well is a priority to aim at winning on Sunday. The McLaren is equipped with the latest upgrade that proved to be very good. we talked with Team Principal Andrea Stella, the man behind the success of the Papaya Team.

McLaren features a new upgrade this weekend. what do you expect from it?

“it’s a substantial upgrade, which is nowhere near as large as the one that we took to Miami, but it should be hopefully noticeable in terms of aerodynamic efficiency of the car. We took our time after Miami to see in development and convince ourselves that we needed to press the green light and deliver parts trackside.

Nowadays you have limitations in terms of cost, so you just can’t bring everything to test at track side, you need to be diligent. There will be a few more in the coming races and hopefully this will help us improve the performance of the car overall and keep competing for good results in the race.

Both drivers will have the same specification of car this weekend.

 

Looking ahead, how do you see the second part of the season? Are you the team to beat this year?

AS: I think there’s been a bit of overstatement about the performance of the car. This could have been because we have been competitive on many Fridays and I thought that this was more the result of the good work in terms of preparation that the team do and being ready straight away for a race weekend. And then we see that Red Bull, Mercedes, they kind of resolve their issues and become competitive on Saturday or on a Sunday. I think this was very apparent in Austria. On Friday, we were just a few milliseconds off Verstappen. On Saturday, he was four tenths ahead of everybody. And in the race, he was the fastest car. So I think we should be a little careful in thinking that McLaren goes to the races and has the fastest car, and separate it from like, ‘oh, we are exploiting the car. We are getting the most out of it and therefore, we are readily competitive’. Said that, we are pleased with what we’ve been able to achieve in terms of competitiveness of the car. And like I said before, I hope that these extra developments and upgrades will give us the possibility to retain this competitive position. Because in fairness, since Miami, we had not brought much lap time to the car itself.

 

McLaren is P2 in both world championships. How do you see Lando?

He definitely has the potential of a world champion, and he’s performing at world championship level. If we compare against perfection, then definitely we have opportunities. But I like that we compare ourselves against perfection, because this is what we need to do. We are together in trying to nail and polish all the possible situations in which we need to be better at delivering according to the potential. Definitely World Championship material. Like in everything, Lando, Oscar, the entire team, every single opportunity to improve needs to be attacked with determination to improve.

 

Is there an area where you think he could still improve?

“In terms of driving itself, speed, consistency in the race, we are not far at all. I think, if anything, this year there’s been more of the opportunities coming in some specific racing situations, like the start, the first lap. Sometimes we have lost some time in the race, just in this initial phase of the of the event, of the race, and then we kind of recovered thanks to the pace that we had later on. So it’s quite specific and we’ve definitely been working on trying to improve it.

How do you see Norris as possible title contender?

“Lando is definitely world championship material. He performs already at levels that I’ve seen in the past in some of the great champions I have the luck to work with. He is on a journey like the entire team is and definitely we as a team have quite a lot of work to do as well.

 

Can he win the World Championship?

“He can win world championships. In terms of this year’s championships, certainly we don’t give up. Numerically, from a driver’s championship point of view, it looks like there’s a big gap to fill. And we are chasing Max Verstappen, so definitely he’s not going to make it easy for us. But we are excited to be in this position. And definitely Lando is in this position because he performs very strongly. And that’s something that we should acknowledge and realize in terms of his achievements, not only in terms of the one, two, three opportunities in a season in which he could have done better. Because this is normal. And

 

Looking at the championship, will there be some specific team orders to support Lando?

“I don’t think that’s a good way of approaching racing. For us, we’d rather approach racing from fairness, integrity, and then see what comes, what sheds from this kind of approach. It’s ten races to go. I think for Lando to realistically be in condition to chase the World Championship, he needs to keep performing at a very high level. He needs to keep being fast. And if you gain your ranks, if you gain your merits on track by being fast, then we will evaluate, always led by integrity and fairness, whether on some occasions we need the team to take a certain direction in a 50-50 decision, or if we want to have a conversation with Oscar and say, like, ‘Oscar, would you be available to do this to support Lando chasing the World Championship?’, but it will always have to be a conversation before the race. Nobody should be surprised. We all should be in agreement because ultimately we chase and we are in the quest for a driver’s World Championship as a team. There’s nobody that goes his own way, and then the others will have to follow. So that’s our style, I would like to keep this more articulated as a team, and then be more on a case-by-case situation.