Lando Norris 'had to try something' with McLaren changes to deny George Russell Dutch pole

Lando Norris has described how McLaren had to "try something" with its set-up changes after the Dutch Grand Prix Sprint as he landed pole position for the main race.

Norris pipped George Russell to pole at Zandvoort having felt changes were required to the MCL40 after the Sprint to allow him to challenge for pole.

After holding the initial pole, Norris blocked Russell's attempts to pass on the final out-lap, and lowered his best time to a 1:11.163 as the rain threatened to close in.

This was 0.102s faster than Russell managed, as Norris took his 18th career pole, second as world champion, to draw level in the all-time list with Mario Andretti, Rene Arnoux, and Kimi Raikkonen. 

Norris had finished third earlier in the day in the Sprint race, having joined Russell on the front row, with the positions now reversed, with the younger Briton ahead of the grid for the final race at Zandvoort.

However, whilst confirming that changes had been made to aid his comfort, Norris downplayed the significance of the scale of them.

"It doesn't get any better, so I'm a little surprised, honestly," said Norris.

"But yeah, it was just a decent lap. I was pushing because you see how close it is, so every hundredth, two-hundredths can make a big difference in the end, but it was just a good turnaround.

"It was a good turnaround from earlier today, where I felt like we struggled a little bit. We certainly felt very strong, so the team did a good job, so credit to them for trying to get a little bit more of the car, and it certainly helped me.

"I mean, we had to try something because what we had before wasn't going to be enough, so we made some small changes, nothing that was going to make us gain two-tenths or one-tenth even, but enough to maybe give me a little bit more confidence. 

"And on a track like Zandvoort, you need good confidence in the car, and you want to attack a lot. So I felt like I could do that more today, and it paid off."