Norris suggests ‘eight drivers’ battling for Spanish GP win

Lando Norris has suggested that up to eight cars are in contention for victory at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Norris is set to lead the field away at the start of the race after claiming his second career pole position on Saturday.

The McLaren driver bested Max Verstappen by two-hundredths of a second during their final Q3 laps.

As he goes in search of the second win of his F1 venture, Norris feels any driver from the McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes camps has a chance of taking to the top step of the podium.

“I don't have any concerns, I'm excited. It's a long run down to Turn 1,” Norris told media including RacingNews365. 

“It's probably one of the places you don't want to start on pole, but it's an opportunity for us to go out and try and win a race. 

“We've not done loads of long-running. We've done a bit and I think we were close, as it always has been. 

“I think between Mercedes, ourselves, Red Bull, Ferrari, there are eight cars that could have probably been on pole and that have a chance of probably winning the race.

“So it's about making the least mistakes, similar to today, and just trying to execute another good race that we normally do.”

Norris went 'balls out' to beat Verstappen

Verstappen held provisional pole position after the first runs in Q3 before being usurped by Norris on the final attempt.

Knowing fine margins would split the group at the end of the session, Norris described he was forced to go “balls out” to pip the three-time world champion.

“I don't think any practice was split by more than a tenth between the top five,” Norris said. “So I was expecting the same as that, and I think it was.

“Probably Max was always two and a half tenths ahead of everyone, both Q1 and Q2 in the runs we did. And we did three laps, we did three runs, four runs in the end altogether. 

“So you do four laps throughout the whole of qualifying. But every time was like missing a little bit to Max and a lot of it was high speed. 

“So I knew for the final lap, I've got to go balls out and do it. And I managed to get that little bit, like that two-hundredths, three-hundredths, four-hundredths that I was needing to get out of Max, I managed to get. 

“So I'm happy the risks paid off and for all of it to come together when I needed it most was great.”