Motorsport Week
  • Formula 1
    • 2025 Formula 1 Calendar
    • 2025 Formula 1 Standings
  • Formula E
    • 2025 Formula E Calendar
    • 2025 Formula E Standings
  • IndyCar
    • 2025 IndyCar Calendar
    • 2025 IndyCar Standings
  • WRC
    • 2025 WRC Standings
    • 2025 WRC Calendar
  • MotoGP
    • 2025 MotoGP Calendar
    • 2025 MotoGP Standings
    • Moto2
    • Moto3
  • WEC
    • 2025 WEC Calendar
  • IMSA
    • 2025 IMSA Calendar
  • World SBK
  • More
    • Formula 2
    • Formula 3
    • F1 Academy
    • Moto2
    • Moto3
    • World Superbikes
    • Technical Insight
    • Galleries
    • About/Contact
    • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
  • Formula 1
    • 2025 Formula 1 Calendar
    • 2025 Formula 1 Standings
  • Formula E
    • 2025 Formula E Calendar
    • 2025 Formula E Standings
  • IndyCar
    • 2025 IndyCar Calendar
    • 2025 IndyCar Standings
  • WRC
    • 2025 WRC Standings
    • 2025 WRC Calendar
  • MotoGP
    • 2025 MotoGP Calendar
    • 2025 MotoGP Standings
    • Moto2
    • Moto3
  • WEC
    • 2025 WEC Calendar
  • IMSA
    • 2025 IMSA Calendar
  • World SBK
  • More
    • Formula 2
    • Formula 3
    • F1 Academy
    • Moto2
    • Moto3
    • World Superbikes
    • Technical Insight
    • Galleries
    • About/Contact
    • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
Motorsport Week
Home Single Seater Formula 1

Norris rues mistake costing him second in Bahrain F1 qualifying

by Taylor Powling
2 years ago
A A
Norris rues mistake costing him second in Bahrain F1 qualifying

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL38. 01.03.2024. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 1, Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir, Bahrain, Qualifying Day.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

McLaren driver Lando Norris rued a mistake on his last run costing him what he believes could have been second place on the grid for Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

McLaren continued its impressive late-season momentum from last term to haul both cars into Q3 at the season opener for the first time under this regulation set.

But despite ending up less than half-a-second adrift of Max Verstappen’s pole position time, Norris wound up seventh as two-tenths separated third to ninth place.

Although he had been pessimistic heading into the weekend, Norris admits McLaren’s MCL38 was performing well and bemoaned not stringing together an optimal lap.

RelatedPosts

McLaren continues to adopt a team first approach

Will McLaren’s ‘team first’ approach unravel as intra-team F1 title duel reaches a climax?

12 hours ago
Max Verstappen dominated the Italian GP weekend

From ‘monster’ car to F1 record breakers: How Red Bull made remarkable Italian GP turnaround

14 hours ago

“It was tricky. I know maybe a few more people might have mistakes in Q3, maybe the wind just changed that a little bit,” Norris said.

“And when you’re in Q3 and just pushing that a little bit more, when things change, you can make a big difference, which it did for me.

“A lot of potential today, I was feeling great all quali, so I was very happy I was putting in some good laps.

“My worst one was my final one which is not only how you want it to go but the potential was there and that’s a good thing for us as a team to know those types of things.

“Yeah, you don’t want to make these mistakes, no matter if the wind does change. You want to be able to put your laps together and the best lap together always come from Q3. And that was not something we were able to do today, but all the people too. So, yeah, in a similar boat, we wish to make smaller mistakes than this.”

With Charles Leclerc in second 0.228s behind Verstappen’s benchmark, Norris is convinced that a seamless run could have seen him secure a front-row starting spot.

However, the Briton also believes that the cooler ambient conditions present in Bahrain this week contributed to McLaren being more competitive than anticipated.

“Just to say there are a few things that all get better with low fuel, cold temperatures, like big things,” Norris added.

“So for us to be, you know, if I just put my reasonable lap in, I just didn’t make a mistake, but it wasn’t an insane lap, I still probably should have been second or third.

“For us to have that, I think knowing what we have and what we still want to be able to improve on is pretty positive. But that’s when everything gets good.

“But as soon as we see, you know, hotter conditions and higher fuel and things like that, FP1, FP2, then that’s when we struggle just a little bit more. So things fall away and that’s why I think we really didn’t feel great times at times in the test. And as everything’s kind of calmed down a bit in the evenings here, we started to get better and better at times.”

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren. 01.03.2024. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 1, Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir, Bahrain, Qualifying Day.

Norris concedes that he is unsure about McLaren’s pace in race trim, but he predicts that strategy could prove decisive with several teams separated by fine margins.

“I didn’t get to do too much high-fuel running in the pre-season test, so it was even a bit for me to figure out the way it’s marked,” he admitted.

“But that pace, like Oscar [Piastri] said, was pretty reasonable yesterday, and I think that also turned into low-fuel pace.

“It’s just very close, like you saw, I think close between different teams, which is always probably the most exciting thing. You’re going to know that Ferrari are going to be going for it at the beginning. We’ve got Mercedes, Aston, us, so we’ve got a good amount of teams all fighting for some good positions.

“What I’d like to say is, hopefully you want to be us trying to just break away from the cars behind. I hope, but at the same time, yeah, I think there’s eight cars who are all pretty tied together. And I think that would be a good show for everyone and everyone watching.

“It will also be a good chance for us if it doesn’t spread out too much to try things and for everyone to try things in strategy and so forth. So I think it’ll be exciting.”

Asked what would represent a good result for McLaren, Norris replied: “Second! I don’t think I can answer it. I don’t know.

“It’s very close between what everyone did yesterday in the long runs. Mercedes, us, Astons, Ferraris, if you looked at Max, he was the only one – he didn’t even press to be honest, the only one to look a little bit ahead. The rest of us were doing similar times give or take. And therefore we don’t know, we’re not able to predict this type of thing.

“The smaller non-driving parts almost make the big difference tomorrow. So, otherwise, it’s close. We’ll figure it out.”

Tags: BahrainGPF1Lando NorrisMcLaren
Share203Tweet127Share

Related Posts

McLaren continues to adopt a team first approach
Feature

Will McLaren’s ‘team first’ approach unravel as intra-team F1 title duel reaches a climax?

12 hours ago
Max Verstappen dominated the Italian GP weekend
Feature

From ‘monster’ car to F1 record breakers: How Red Bull made remarkable Italian GP turnaround

14 hours ago
Max Verstappen won the 2025 Italian GP from pole position
Feature

Motorsport Week’s F1 2025 Italian GP Driver Ratings

16 hours ago
Load More

Discussion about this post

Upcoming Races

#EventDate
17Azerbaijan GP19-21 September
18Singapore GP03-05 October
19United States GP17-19 October
20Mexico City GP24-26 October
21São Paulo GP07-09 November

Click here for the full 2025 F1 calendar

Drivers’  Standings

#DriverPts
Oscar Piastri324
Lando Norris293
Max Verstappen230
George Russell194
Charles Leclerc163
Lewis Hamilton117
Alexander Albon70
Andrea Kimi Antonelli66
Isack Hadjar38
Nico Hulkenberg37

Click here for full Drivers’ Standings

Latest Articles

McLaren continues to adopt a team first approach
Feature

Will McLaren’s ‘team first’ approach unravel as intra-team F1 title duel reaches a climax?

September 9, 2025
Max Verstappen dominated the Italian GP weekend
Feature

From ‘monster’ car to F1 record breakers: How Red Bull made remarkable Italian GP turnaround

September 9, 2025
Max Verstappen won the 2025 Italian GP from pole position
Feature

Motorsport Week’s F1 2025 Italian GP Driver Ratings

September 9, 2025

Follow Motorsport Week

Join our daily motorsport newsletter

* indicates required

Motorsport Week

© 2024 Motorsport Media Services Ltd

Other Links

  • About & Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Motorsport Monday

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Sign Up
  • Home
  • Formula 1
    • Latest News
    • 2025 F1 Calendar
    • 2025 F1 Championship Standings
  • Formula E
    • Latest News
    • 2025 FE Calendar
    • 2025 FE Championship Standings
  • MotoGP
    • Latest News
    • 2025 MotoGP Calendar
    • 2025 MotoGP Standings
    • Moto2
    • Moto3
    • World Superbikes
  • WRC
    • Latest News
    • 2025 WRC Calendar
    • 2025 WRC Standings
  • IndyCar
    • Latest News
    • 2025 IndyCar Calendar
    • 2025 IndyCar Standings
  • WEC
    • Latest News
    • 2025 WEC Calendar
  • Live Updates
  • Other
    • IMSA
    • Formula 2
    • Formula 3
    • F1 Academy
    • Moto2
    • Moto3
    • World Superbikes
  • Galleries
  • About/Contact
  • Privacy Policy

© 2024 Motorsport Media Services Ltd