2023 São Paulo Grand Prix – Sprint “A strong result for our team"

Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Saturday, 4 November

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after Sprint Saturday at the São Paulo Grand Prix.

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SQ1 1m11.824s (Mediums) 2nd
SQ2 1m11.221s (Mediums) 1st
SQ3 1m10.622s (Softs) 1st
Started 1st  
Finished 2nd  
Fastest Lap 1m14.647s on lap 3 (+0.225, 3rd)  

“It was good fun today. My initial start was good but the second phase of the launch was maybe a little bit on the safe side. These are things to improve for tomorrow but nevertheless the pace was strong as we got into the race. I tried to go after Max – but just didn't have enough.

“I’m encouraged with how good our pace was today. We didn’t expect to be fighting Max at a track which doesn’t suit our car as much, so overall I'm pleased with my performance today. Tomorrow I’ll try to work my way through the field again and work hard to secure good points for the team.”

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SQ1 1m12.356s (Mediums) 14th
SQ2 1m11.648s (Mediums) 9th
SQ3 1m11.189s (Softs) 10th
Started 10th  
Finished 10th  
Fastest Lap 1m15.463s on lap 2 (+1.041s, 10th)  

“P10 today, there was some good racing out there but I struggled with tyre degradation from all the battling. Other than that, it was a fun race around a good circuit. We managed to get some important learning done ahead of tomorrow which will certainly help us in the Grand Prix. We’ll work to see what we can do in the race and hope to score positive points.”

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“A strong result for our team with a P2 in the Sprint race in Brazil. It’s important for the entire team after a qualifying session yesterday in which we didn’t capitalise on the potential of the car in Q3. Instead, today, the result was strong, with a pole position and a second position finish on Lando’s side. We have also shown decent competitiveness compared to Verstappen, which, in a way, is a good surprise.

“Starting P10 with Oscar, it was always going to be difficult to score points, and we have to remember this was the first long run ever for Oscar in Brazil. Nevertheless, we got very useful information to help us prepare for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. We’ll aim for a strong race and look to progress through the field and score good points with both drivers.”

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