The McLaren driver capitalised on rapidly improving track conditions at the end of Q3 to claim a sensational maiden pole in Sochi after gambling to switch onto soft tyres following his first run on inter🐻mediates.

It was a move that paid off for Norris, who went on꧂ to beat Fe⭕rrari’s Carlos Sainz by six-tenths of a second.

"It feels ama🍸zing, I do🍰n't know what to say," Norris said.

"It was quite a manic session. We were going well and꧃ obvi🔜ously we made the decision in the end to go slicks.

"You don'tও think you'ꦗre going to get a pole until you get it and now I've managed to do it so yeah, extremely happy.

"Big thanks to the team as well, they've done an ama🌌zing job.”

Norris admitted he was initially꧂ 💦unsure whether he had made the correct decision in changing onto slicks.

"I'm obviously going to make myself sound good൩, but it was tricky,” he explained.

"It was really that crossover section and the lap before 💦I was like, two seconds down, and I wasn't very confident we were going to improve on the previous lap.

"But I kept 🍎the tyres warm and prepared the final lap, and I risked quite a bit, I'm going to admit, and it paid off, so I'm a happy boy.”

The result comes two weeks after Norris finished second behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo at the Italian Grand Prix as McLaren ended iꦫts near-decade-long winning drought in F1.

“Coming off 🔥Monza this is not something we r⛄eally expected,” Norris said.

“But these kind of conditions are when we can tak👍e opportunities and that’s exactly what we did today.

“Especially after Monz♕a this is an awesome way to start and hopeful⭕ly we can continue it again tomorrow.”

However, Norris acknowledged that pole m♎ight not be ideal in Sochi given the nature of the long run down to Turn 2.

“I’m not looking forwღard to being first down to turn one tomorrow,” he said. “But you never know, it’s goin💃g to set us up well.

“We’re in the best position we can be in so I’m hapꦏpy. It’s my first pole position, hopefully the first✤ of many.”