Despite a 0.537s Gap, Lando Norris Warns Max Verstappen With an Insight Into Andrea Stella’s Masterplan

McLaren’s rise ever since the upgrades brought at the Austrian GP has been unheard of. An analysis done by Sam Collins revealed how Andrea Stella and Co. have caught Red Bull by over a second over the course of the season. Lando Norris has now sent a warning to Max Verstappen as he gives insights about Andrea Stella’s masterplan, despite a 0.537-second gap. What is this master plan?

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were 1-2 after the penultimate laps in Q3 at the Dutch GP. Lando Norris even topped the FP2 session. It looked like the Brit would stop Max Verstappen from taking pole at the Dutchman’s home race. However, Super Max put in a blistering lap time of 1:10:567 to take the provisional pole away from Norris. Despite improving on the final lap, Norris still had a 0.537-second margin to Verstappen.

However, this gap didn’t stop Lando Norris from making a bold statement and sending a warning to Max Verstappen. McLaren has risen from arguably being one of the worst teams at the start of the season to the 2nd best. Advising how the performance has taken huge strides forward, Norris warned Verstappen of Andrea Stella’s master plan of bringing more performance to the car.

According to @TheMcLarenZone’s tweet, Lando Norris during the post-qualifying interview said, “So there are little things that we’re going to consistently try to bring. But there’s more to come and I think because the car has taken so many big steps forward.”

Read More: Lando Norris Throws in the Towel as Max Verstappen’s Robotic Dominace Exposes McLaren’s Achilles’ Heel

Nonetheless, the gap isn’t really representative of the performance. The track wasn’t at its optimal and the driver made a lot of difference. More than it would on a completely dry track. Even Lando Norris acknowledged making an error on his final lap. What did the Briton say?

Lando Norris on not having a great second half of the final qualifying lap.

Charles Leclerc crashed with about 4 minutes left on the clock in Q3. Enough time for all drivers to do one qualifying lap. The conditions were tricky with the track still damp in certain areas. Norris was up on Verstappen’s time in sector 1 but explained how he had a subpar second half during his final lap. 

According to FIA.com, Lando Norris, during the trackside post-qualifying interview said, “Qualifying is always stressful, no matter what the conditions. But definitely, now it’s definitely trickier. Like the first half of the lap was mega, the second half was probably one of the worst second halves that I’ve done! So, it peaked very early on.”

The race will be an interesting one. Will Lando Norris be able to challenge for the win? 

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