Lando Norris secures pole position for the 2025 Austrian GP with a dominant performance throughout qualifying, as the Brit seems to have found his mental reset in the ongoing Formula 1 season, but can he deliver when it counts on Sunday?
The 25-year-old looked untouchable through Q1, Q2 and Q3 to ensure he starts from the front on June 29 at one of his strongest circuits, with a golden chance to claw back some points in the drivers’ standings against his teammate, Oscar Piastri.
His 1:03.971 being the only one out of all 20 drivers that managed to dip below the 1:04s, highlighting the quality of his lap – although the caveat is that neither Piastri nor Red Bull‘s Max Verstappen didn’t get a chance to do his final run because of yellow flags.
Despite that moment of misfortune for the championship leader, it wasn’t likely he could have found the necessary time anyway based on the previous sessions as the Monaco Grand Prix winner was in control.
“It was a good lap, that’s for sure. I guess just little bit by little bit,” Norris told media, including Total-Motorsport.com, after the session. “I feel even like my Q3 run one was good,
“But I knew there were a few places where if I just got it right I could get still quite a bit more time – and I did exactly that.
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“I did what I planned to do, and when I plan to do something and it goes right, it normally goes very, very well.
“I’m very happy, [it’s been] a good day, and it’s been a good weekend for me so far, so hopefully we can keep it up.”
Can Lando Norris deliver victory in the 2025 Austrian GP to complete mental reset?
The moment hands the championship hopeful not just control of Sunday’s 71-lap race on June 29, but also a valuable chance to take some confidence into the upcoming British GP on July 6 too as he proves he’s more than fast enough when he puts it together.
But that is ultimately where the question lies: Can he put it together? Now with a mental reset in his mind, Norris must make sure he converts this 2025 Austrian GP pole into a victory to take some pressure off himself.
Generally, his Lap 1 starts have been fine and he has seldom lost places save for the Miami GP when he was forced off track by Verstappen, and with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari offering a buffer between he and Piastri, focus should be on getting off the line well.
And even though he has found qualifying tough, he has shown blistering race pace that has allowed him to largely salvage his weekends on Sundays – something Andrea Stella was keen to point out as the McLaren team principal handed Norris a vote of confidence.
“Even in Canada, after reviewing the weekend with Lando and his engineers, we always said the speed was there,” Stella told Sky Sports F1. “When he had the little contact with the wall in qualifying, he was on track for a pole position.
“And in the race, he was one of the fastest, if not the fastest car, in the race. The speed was always there. We needed to polish the execution. We made little adjustments here and there.
“I’m really proud of Lando today. Not only he scored a pole position, but it’s a dominant pole position, a pretty remarkable lap time.”
