Lando Norris believes he faces a “big challenge” to pass polesitter Max Verstappen in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix when he will bid for a victory to help revive his title challenge against Oscar Piastri.

Norris missed out on pole position at Monza to Red Bull rival Verstappen by a narrow margin of 0.077s on the final laps of a closely-fought qualifying session around F1’s fastest track.

But he crucially still outqualified – by one place – title-leading McLaren team-mate Piastri, whose championship advantage over Norris grew to 34 points after the Briton retired from last Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Norris admitted he was pleased to salvage second given his qualifying up to his final lap had been “pretty bad”.

The Briton almost dropped out in Q2 after running wide on his first run and then was only a provisional seventh on the grid after completing the first run of Q3 without a tow. But he eventually found big gains on his decisive final attempt to jump up five positions on to the front row.

“I think it was the best lap I did in qualy by like six tenths or something,” said Norris.

“So, impressive that I managed to improve so much – or probably impressive that I did such a bad job prior to that!”

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Highlights from Saturday’s qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix

With a major setback avoided, Norris is now in a strong starting position to both try and beat Piastri and win Sunday’s Grand Prix – although he is not underestimating the challenge posed by the impressive polesitter amid a return to form for Red Bull.

“Sunday is normally our strength but to get past Max I’m sure will be a big challenge, but we’ll wait and see,” said Norris.

“Their pace was also very strong, if you see their speed at the stint they are also doing the same lap times as us.

“So I don’t expect any magical things and we have some Ferraris behind who I’m sure will want to come through as quickly as possible.”

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Karun Chandhok analyses the close fight for pole position at the Italian GP between Verstappen and Norris

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Norris added: “It’s been pretty neck and neck with everyone this weekend so I am not expecting an easy race. I expect always, especially from Max, a tough challenge – especially when it’s for the win.

“But there are still opportunities whether it’s the first lap, strategy or just a bit more pace we can try and find.”

‘I know at times I’ve got to take more risks now’

Knowing Verstappen – whose title defence is effectively over already with nine races to go, given he trails Piastri by over 100 points – is unlikely to make life easy for him, Norris was asked how he would approach the start into Monza’s tight first chicane given his more delicate own title situation.

“You can’t decide those things now, honestly,” he replied.

“You can plan for things and I think that’s the most you can do. You can plan for as many eventualities as possible but when you have got humans on track you can’t know what’s going to happen.

“I know at times I’ve got to take more risks now, at times I still need to be cautious, but I’ll make those decisions when I need to.”

The outcome of Sunday’s race could be crucial to Norris’ prospects of quickly regaining significant momentum in the title fight.

Were he to win, with Piastri staying third behind Verstappen, for instance, he would take 10 points out of his team-mate’s advantage – getting him back to just 24 points behind, within the points equivalent of one race victory.

Rosberg: Victory battle still ‘wide open’

Sky Sports F1’s Nico Rosberg: “This time McLaren know they need to be careful. Ferrari can’t surprise them in the way they did last year with the one stop.

“Nevertheless I still see possibilities. Max is in there, Charles from behind can do something different and surprise the bunch.

“It’s quite wide open which for us is really exciting.”

Is the first lap Piastri’s best chance again?

Piastri also qualified one place behind Norris last year when McLaren locked out the front row.

But the Australian was ahead in the race by the second chicane after a bold overtaking move that not only took the lead away from his team-mate but also saw Norris drop behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to third.

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Watch from the onboard cameras of Piastri and Norris their duel on the first lap of the 2024 Italian GP

It was Leclerc who ended up winning, completing just one pit-stop to the McLaren drivers’ two, but this year’s 53-lap race is predicted to prove a conventional Monza one-stopper through the field.

Piastri told Sky Sports F1: “In terms of strategy, I’m not sure how many options there are.

“Long run to turn one, it’s a long run to turn four, so there are things that can happen. I’m not expecting the grid to stay in the same order after the first lap from the start to the back, so hopefully I can be one of the people who goes forwards.

“Still definitely get stuck in if I can but for me it’s the same racing style that I’ve always taken, which is if there’s any opportunity then try and take it, if it’s a high risk one then don’t. I think in the position I’m in now obviously a zero [score] would be pretty painful, so I’ll just treat it like normal and trust that my instincts are normally pretty good.”

Chadwick: Never rule Verstappen out

Sky Sports F1’s Jamie Chadwick:

“McLaren’s race pace looks so good which is something we’ve seen throughout the practice sessions.

“But Max, you can never rule him out, he always fights them hard and I think he’s going to fight them especially hard here.

“Lap One will be a big decider for me.”

Verstappen hopeful of sustaining McLaren fight

While not one to over celebrate qualifying results, Verstappen still declared his Monza pole a “big” one for Red Bull given the “disaster” of this weekend for them in 2024 when he qualified seventh and finished sixth.

It is the reigning world champion’s fifth pole position of the season – as many as Piastri and one more than Norris – although unusually the Dutchman has only converted one of the previous four into a win, and none of the last three.

“This season in the race we always seem to struggle a little bit more with just how the tyres are behaving for us compared to McLaren,” said Verstappen.

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Verstappen discusses his pole-setting lap at Monza and rates his chances against McLaren in Sunday’s race

“They always seem like in the race they go even faster.

“That I think will be the same again [on Sunday], so if my side of it feels good with the behaviour of the tyres, I might be able to fight them, but we’ll see. We are going to give it everything we have.”

Verstappen’s last win on a Sunday came nine races and four months ago at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

If he is to end that run here, then the Dutchman must break a recent ‘Temple of Speed’ hoodoo: none of the last five Monza polesitters have gone on to win the grand prix.

Sky Sports F1’s Italian GP Schedule

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Look back at some of the most dramatic moments to have taken place at the Italian Grand Prix

Sunday September 7
7.10am: F3 Feature Race
8.40am: F2 Feature Race
10.40am: Porsche Supercup Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Italian GP build-up
2pm: THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Italian GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1’s European season concludes with the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday with lights out at 2pm and build-up from 12.30pm on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime