Lando Norris rued committing another mistake in qualifying that he’s convinced cost him a certain second place on the grid for Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Norris was sitting second midway through Q3, 0.4s behind Max Verstappen after running used tyres on his first run compared to the Red Bull driver on new rubber.
Having been only a tenth down on the Dutchman’s benchmark through the first two sectors, Norris encountered a slide out of Turn 13 that saw him fail to even improve.
Norris would be made to bemoan that error as he slipped to fifth on the grid, behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, team-mate Oscar Piastri and the Mercedes of George Russell.
Norris believes the incident cost him “four-tenths”, adding it “100 per cent” denied him a place on the front row alongside Verstappen, who claimed pole despite not improving.
“I didn’t do it [the lap], so it doesn’t matter,” Norris lamented.
While the Briton downplayed that pole was possible if he’d executed a clean final run, Norris vented frustration at slipping up once more when it mattered most in qualifying.
Norris previously criticised himself for a series of blunders that prevented him from contesting a maiden Formula 1 victory in Qatar and again in Mexico last month.
“I don’t know if it was for P1, maybe, but I don’t think it would’ve been P1,” he admitted.
“I don’t care if you make any mistake in qualifying, when you’re fighting for a good position, it’s frustrating, but the thing is, I just make so many mistakes on a Saturday at the minute.
“Every other lap was some of my best laps. My first lap in Q3 was very strong, it’s just one little mistake, I don’t know why it happened, I’ve not done that all weekend. Just frustrating, I’m just doing a shit job on Saturday.”
Asked if he thought he was being too harsh on himself, Norris replied: “Not at all. I should’ve been P2, and I end up P5 because of a stupid mistake. I’m too soft on myself.”
Meanwhile, Norris was sceptical surrounding his chances of recovering to the podium in tomorrow’s grand prix amid the lack of representable running completed on Friday.
“I have no idea,” when asked about his prospect’s tomorrow. “I did FP2, and there were two red flags, I’ve not done more than one lap in a row this weekend, not done one lap with more than 50 kilos of fuel this weekend.
“I don’t know, it was a terrible day for me today. The car has been very good all weekend, with the few laps I’ve done, so we’ll find out.”
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