Norris expects challenge after back-to-back poles

Lando Norris starts the first grand prix after Formula 1's summer break in the same place as he started the one before it - on pole.

But the McLaren driver does not expect the Dutch Grand Prix to end with the comfortable victory he enjoyed in Hungary a month ago.

The lessons of the sprint race earlier on Saturday make Norris cautious heading into Sunday's race at Zandvoort.

He started second to Mercedes' George Russell for the sprint, a reverse of their places on the grand prix grid. But Russell took a comfortable win while Norris fell behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in the closing stages.

Norris is wary of something similar happening again.

"I'm not thinking of tomorrow," he said, "just thinking: I'm on pole. Let me enjoy it. I will do my preparation tonight, prepare well, learn as much as we can from this morning, see what we can do better."

Norris took pole with a lap right on the ragged edge.

"We could have been on pole yesterday," he said. "The sprint race disappointed me quite a bit because of our pace.

"I knew we would be a little better come qualifying because of the low fuel and new tyres, and my final two laps I put things together a lot more.

"My final lap was not the cleanest or best lap I've ever done but I committed a lot more in my braking and took a lot more risks in the high-speed corners.

"It was a lap that was a lot more uncomfortable, one where I was hustling and sliding a lot more, reacting a lot more to the car - which is not necessarily the best way to go about qualifying but it worked today."

Norris' lap exploited all McLaren's pace advantage through the corners in the middle sector. Here, including the daunting high-speed, downhill Turn Seven known as Scheivlak, Norris was fastest, 0.28secs quicker than Russell.

That was enough to put him at the front of the grid, despite only being fourth and seventh-quickest respectively in the first and final sectors, which have more slow-speed corners.

Norris' problem is that, in the race, an advantage in the high-speed corners cannot be exploited as much as on fresh tyres on one lap in qualifying.

In races, F1 drivers often have to back off in the high-speed corners, to avoid putting too much heat in the rubber. This was the problem that led to Norris challenging Russell in the early laps of the sprint, only for his pace to drop off dramatically at about one-third distance.

"I'll see what compromises I can make between high and low speed," Norris said, "see how we can make our weaknesses not as much as a struggle.

"We just need to work hard. If we work hard and prepare well, it's possible. But I am not expecting a race like Budapest. I am expecting a challenge. But I am looking forward to it."

Russell, who needs a good result to reignite his title challenge, is aware of this.

"They are very fast in the high-speed but I don't think that will give them as much of an opportunity to use that pace as in qualifying," he said, "because it puts too much temperature into the tyres. But pole is the best place to start, especially on a circuit where it's difficult to overtake."

If Norris can keep the lead off the line to the end of the first lap, he has a chance. But still Mercedes' better pace, founded on a more-rounded car, could make them hard to beat in the race.

For Russell, the minimum he needs on Sunday is stay ahead of Antonelli.

Victory in the sprint, with Antonelli only fourth, moved him three points closer to the Italian, who dominated the first half of the season.

But Antonelli is still 56 points ahead. That advantage is already imposing. The longer Russell is unable to reduce it as the races tick down to a season's conclusion shrouded in uncertainty because of the war in the Middle East, it will only become daunting.

Russell has been on much better form this weekend, and has beaten Antonelli in all three competitive sessions so far. He says a mental reset over the summer break, which he spent with his fiancee, Carmen, and two friends, has helped him put a difficult first part of the season in perspective.

"The truth is, obviously Kimi's been doing an amazing job this season, and clearly the two of us have quite different driving styles," Russell said. "That was apparent last year, and it is really working well for him with this car and these tyres.

"And just trying to implement something similar into my driving style. I kind of describe it as, like, if you change your golf swing, you'll probably take half a step back before making those improvements.

"The break just allowed me to put those learnings into the back of my mind, come here this weekend, not fixating on what I want to try and achieve with the car and the tyres, but knowing in the back of my head what I need to achieve and just drive more freely.

"I'm really, really proud of that because it's just sort of building that toolbox of experience for me that's going to allow me to be even better in the years to come.

"After the break, I just feel way more relaxed. I don't feel like I've got anything to lose.

"The pressure's off. I'm just going to go out, enjoy it, and I don't even really feel in a fight. It's not mine to lose, it's mine to gain. So that's the mentality I've got, and I feel it's going to help me. I'm just enjoying driving."

Russell, though, has Antonelli right behind him, and more than once this year the Briton has out-qualified his team-mate only to find him faster come the race. Not only that, but Antonelli also under-performed in qualifying.

He was only 0.031secs slower than Russell, and 0.133secs off pole, despite a poor first sector to his final lap, where he took it too easy into Turn One, concerned that the drops of rain he could see on his visor would have affected grip levels more than they did.

"0.1secs off pole hurts a little bit because I had a really bad sector one in my last lap," Antonelli said. "It's never a good feeling when you see you are 0.2secs down in sector one.

"I was able to make it up in sector two and three but still not good enough performance-wise because I think we had a real shot today at pole.

"It was a very good wake-up call this weekend, that you can never lower your guard because when you do that... I did a mistake yesterday and today I did a mistake in Q3.

"So, it's not that I'm driving more tense or anything, but I just feel this weekend is a good wake-up call, and to just again put things in the right place at the right time and just deliver the result when it counts."