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 then had been “pretty bad”.

The Briton almost dropped out in Q2 after running wide on his first lap 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.

“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!”

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 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.”

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.”

Sky Sports F1’s Italian GP Schedule

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