The McLaren driver had been left disappointed after Friday’s qualifying session for Sunday’s grand prix when he felt he and the squad had blown the chance to start from the top spot.
But he did not get it wrong a second time, as he pulled off a brilliant pole position in the Q3 segment of sprint qualifying to edge out Max Verstappen by 0.061 seconds.
While McLaren has shown strong potential throughout the Interlagos weekend, Norris said he did not feel his final sprint qualifying effort was going to deliver pole.
“Honestly, it felt like one of the worst laps I've done,” explained the Briton. “So I'm a little bit surprised, but it's a good surprise. I feel like we made up for yesterday. So yeah, good. My first pole in a long time, so I'm happy.”
Speaking in more detail to F1 about exactly why the lap had not felt good, Norris said the biggest error came in the opening section.
“I just messed up Turn 1,” he explained. “I think that was the only real thing, the rest of it didn't feel amazing but not bad.
“Turn 1 and Turn 2 have been my nemesis corners all weekend. And I probably did my worst Turn 1 and Turn 2 today in Q3.”
Source: Autosport