Splitting the Mercedes pair in Q3, a happy Lando Norris praises "the type of lap that you feel like you should be on pole with".

For a while, despite the 0.893s deficit to pole, it appeared to be business as usual, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell filling the second row of the French Grand Prix grid.

But then along came Lando Norris with a late screamer, that split the Mercedes pair and put him on the second row of the grid.

"It has been a very good day," he grinned. "Before qualifying, we were discussing whether we should even talk about Q3 because it was very far away from what we thought we could achieve.

"Like I said, we weren't expecting Q3 today," he continued, "so to be P5 is a good step.

"I'm happy," he grinned. "I mean, my lap in Q3 felt like a really good lap, the type of lap that you feel like you should be on pole with. In other categories if you do this lap, I feel like I'd be very happy with that, and if I'm not on pole then I'd be surprised. But I was still like one-and-a-bit seconds away.

"The team have done a good job," he added. "I feel like I've done a good job extracting everything, so we are in the best position we could be for tomorrow."

Asked where he thought 'that lap' came from, he said: "Put it down to two things. One, the car performing very well, and obviously working well. But also to it being a very good lap, and I would say there was probably one mistake, a little bit of wheelspin out of Turn 9.

"But apart from that it was a very strong lap from myself. So I think that was the thing which put us ahead of one of the Mercedes. I was still three-tenths behind the other, (but) there's no way I was going three-tenths quicker, if that makes sense.

"So it shows they're still ahead. But to have closed the gap as much as what we did, considering where we've been the last few weekends, and where they've been as well, I know they're a little bit off the pace, it was definitely a surprise but a good one, like a rewarding surprise.

"So whether or not we'll be able to keep up with them in the race is another question, but for today, it was lovely to be ahead of one of them, at least.

"I'm hoping a similar scenario happens tomorrow. We are thinking we might have a tough race but hopefully it's just a really easy one. I'm expecting a good race and a good battle with Fernando, maybe not the Mercedes, but I'll try."

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