Norris and Gasly see ‘good opportunity’ to keep Hamilton behind in Monaco GP

Despite expecting Monte Carlo’s slow-speed track to expose the shortcomings of McLaren’s 2021 car, Norris turned in another impressive qualifying display to seal fifth on the grid with a lap that was just 0.274s down on Charles Leclerc’s pole position effort.

Norris managed to outpace the faster cars of reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton - who struggled for grip in his Mercedes as he slumped to his worst qualifying result since 2018 in P7 - and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who ended up ninth.

“I did not think we would be P5,” said Norris. “The car has been good all weekend and I have felt comfortable since FP1. 

“I was super happy with my lap. I put it all together, I did all the best corners on that lap, which I am pleased to do, especially after the last few weeks. 

“It has been nice to put qualifying altogether. To be only two-tenths off pole is a good achievement for us.”

With overtaking considered to be virtually impossible in Monaco, Norris is hoping to stay in front of Hamilton and Perez in Sunday’s race.

“It is not an easy track to overtake on,” he added. “Which means there is a good opportunity to keep the fast cars behind like Lewis. 

“But it is also difficult to go forwards. It is a long race, it is easy to make mistakes. One little oversteer, one bump you get wrong, and you’re and the barriers.”

Pierre Gasly, who is set to join Norris on the third row of the grid, is eyeing “big points” for AlphaTauri as he too aims to beat Hamilton and Perez in the race. 

“I think we did the best with the car we have, where others didn’t maximise their lap,” the Frenchman said. “To qualify in front of one Mercedes and one Red Bull, to us is a fairly big achievement.

“So I’m very pleased with all the work of the team to give me such a strong car when it mattered and I think it was one of my best quali laps, as well, so I’m really pleased that it came together in Q3.

“And we’ll try to have a good strategy, obviously, we have fast cars behind – we have Lewis, we have Perez. We know how difficult it is to overtake so I think we need to to do a clean race from where we start. 

“I think we can aim for big points. And I really hope we can finally have a clean, full weekend and the big reward at the end.”