Lando Norris has hailed McLaren’s performance at the Singapore Grand Prix after qualifying on the second row of the grid. Norris is set to take the start in fourth place, running a heavily updated MCL60 car. The Briton has held strong pace throughout the weekend, and was a contender for pole position but ended up behind Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Charles Leclerc, 0.286s down on pole-sitter Sainz. McLaren's upgrades are aimed at fixing the low-speed weaknesses of the MCL60, with Norris pleased by the end result which is his best since qualifying third in Hungary. "That was a very good result for us today," he told media including RacingNews365 . "I know two-tenths doesn’t sound like a lot but I did my best laps by quite a long way in Q3. “It was tough, it was close. It’s not an easy track, ever, to push to the limits and try and find more time but we did that every time. "To be P4, I know maybe some people expected more but I'm very happy with it. I think we were probably closer to the top than we thought. "To be ahead of [one] Mercedes [of Lewis Hamilton] and both Red Bulls was a bit of a surprise so a good day, but turning it into some points is the main thing."
Norris plays down podium chances
Norris was the only McLaren driver to advance into the final segment as team-mate Oscar Piastri was eliminated in Q1. Having already scored two podiums this year, Norris has conceded that it will be difficult to secure a third around the Marina Bay Circuit. "I mean, I would just love to get some good points. I know everyone is going to be saying a podium but it’s a difficult track to overtake on. "With two Ferraris who have been very strong all weekend with your Mercedes and George who has also been very strong all weekend, and Mercedes has always been very good in race pace too, then maybe [I’m] not the most confident to say I can attack them and things like that. "But we have pace clearly to fight against them and stay where we are at least so that's going to be the plan."
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