McLaren driver Lando Norris says he is “frustrated and annoyed” by his recent one-lap displays, feeling a mistake cost him a top-five result in Bahrain.
Norris carried McLaren’s hopes for much of qualifying in the wake of team-mate Carlos Sainz suffering a terminal brake failure in the early stages of Q2.
Norris made it through to Q3 and finished in ninth position, splitting the AlphaTauri pair of Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat.
But the 21-year-old suggested that a loftier grid position was possible, having been just two-tenths shy of fifth-placed Sergio Perez.
“We were thinking about [Renault] but just doing the best job we could and we did that all the way to Q3, got in on the Mediums,” he said.
“Yeah, we had the pace to do P5, I think it was, but I made one mistake and it cost me the four positions that I wanted.
“I’m a bit frustrated… I dunno, I just haven’t done a good qualifying lap lately and it frustrates and annoys me a lot, so I’ll have to do a better job next week.”
Sainz, who has never scored a point in five previous starts in Bahrain, lamented the brake failure that consigned him to 15th on the grid.
“We had gone through Q1 with only one set of tyres, were out there on Medium, and going through to Q3 on Medium [was possible], so for us to have that problem with the Medium tyre flat-spotted and lose it probably for the race is the worst possible scenario,” he said.
“There’s pace in the car, no doubt about that, I felt really, really at home the whole weekend.
“The problem is the strategic options available for us with the tyres we’ve got, we’ve been trying to save those harder set of tyres for the race and at the moment I don’t know what I’m going to have available tomorrow with the problems I’ve had today.”
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