Norris was ‘cheering on Russell from the ambulance’ during Spa F1 qualifying

Norris was taken to the hospital for precautionary checks following his high-speed shunt on the exit of Raidillon at the start of Q3.

The Brit was able to escape his wrecked McLaren and has been given the all-clear to race on Sunday.

Once Q3 resumed, Russell shocked everyone and stormed to the top of the timesheets in the dying moments of qualifying, before being toppled by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

“I’m very happy for George as well, I was watching in the ambulance on the way - I wanted to watch quali still - and I was cheering on George to go for that pole,” Norris said.

“So I’m excited. Spa, anything can happen and we obviously had good pace, the car was really nice to drive today. It’s cool, it’s fun conditions to drive in - maybe not quite at the end but the whole of Q1 and Q2 was challenging and it’s what we love as drivers. Hopefully, it’s not too bad tomorrow and I can try to come back through.”

Prior to his crash, Norris looked like he was a serious contender for pole having topped Q1 and Q2.

Norris feels it was a missed opportunity as a maiden pole position was there for the taking at Spa.

“Everything was going extremely well,” Norris added. “Since the first lap in Q1 things were going perfectly and the car was hooked up, I felt confident in the car. It was tricky going out in Q3 because even on the out lap I was saying how wet it was and saying it should be stopped or something because I was aquaplaning quite a bit, so it was just a difficult situation to be in: how much do you want to push and how much do you not?

“I think it’s a combination of pushing a bit too much for the weather at that point, aquaplaning a little bit in the middle of Eau Rouge which obviously doesn’t end too well and ends up being the way I was in the end.

“Of course I feel bad because things were going very well, the car was on fire, Q1 and Q2 were extremely good and I think I could quite easily have fought for pole position, but I’ve now given the team a lot of work to do and probably a very late night, but not a lot I can do now.”