Lando Norris has declared that “there was nothing I could do” to avoid the circumstances that contributed to his surprise Q1 exit at Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Norris entered this round with McLaren having disclosed earlier in the week that it is now prepared to provide more support to his title hopes against Max Verstappen.
However, Norris, who sits a sizeable 62 points behind Verstappen, now has an uphill task to reduce the Dutchman’s gap as he was eliminated in the opening segment.
The Briton was on course to produce the lap he needed to advance into Q2 when a slow-moving Esteban Ocon in the Alpine brought out yellow flags in the last sector.
Norris abandoned his last attempt regardless, though, as a wide moment onto the exit kerb at Turn 16 disrupted his momentum heading onto the start-finish straight.
The green light panel would appear as Norris started to build up speed, but he has admitted that the slight disruption meant that he was resigned to a premature exit.
“No, we weren’t really on the back foot,” Norris, who had been lagging behind the ultimate pace in practice, retorted.
“Just the guy ahead of me [Ocon] crashed and there was yellow flags. I was feeling good.
“When you have a two kilometres straight and you have to lift at the beginning, of course, there was nothing I could do.”
Norris is expecting that McLaren will have to get creative on the pit wall with strategic choices to help him rise up the order around the tight and twisting Baku streets.
“I think everything is going have to be done with strategy, because you can’t overtake,” Norris.
“There’s plenty of cars at the back which just take all the wing off and hope for the best, and that makes it impossible for a lot of cars to overtake them.
“The car is quick, we can hope that that can come into our hands and at some point I can get clean air.
“But on a street circuit, everything gets backed up so much, you just get forced into a position and you can’t do a lot at times.
“We’ll hope for the best, but I don’t expect anything that’s real, unless strategy comes into play.”
Norris has expressed that it would be “stupid” to anticipate that team-mate Oscar Piastri, who split the Ferraris to bag second on the grid, can help him out in the race.
Asked whether he thinks Piastri will be aid his advances, Norris responded: “No, that would be stupid.”
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