McLaren rookie Lando Norris has revealed he will be eyeing an early move on fourth-placed Max Verstappen, as the teenager put his MCL34 on P5 in qualifying in what was his best Saturday in Formula 1 to date.
Verstappen only beat his sim racing teammate Norris by nine-thousandths of a second on Saturday, underlining that at least on one-lap pace, McLaren are right there with Red Bull.
Now, with the French Grand Prix just a few hours away, Norris hopes to nail the start and potentially climb into the top four.
"If I just nailed that last corner I probably could have been ahead of Verstappen," the 19-year-old analysed when looking at his qualifying lap with Sky Sports F1.
Norris might be behind Verstappen, but he is ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz in P6, as well as Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly in P7 and P9 respectively. A lot of heavyweights behind him, but the youngster only looks at what's ahead of him.
"I want to nail the start and want to be ahead of Verstappen if I can, that would be the ideal world, and I've got Vettel behind me who is in a definite faster car and is quick on the straights.
"So I'll see what I can do. I want to go forwards, but I also want to keep the quicker guys behind me."
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