How Lando Norris ‘paid the price’ for ‘too many mistakes’ in China F1 qualifying

Lando Norris said he “paid the price” and made “too many mistakes” in Saturday’s qualifying session for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.

Mistakes driving the twitchy, yet undeniably fast MCL39 cost both McLaren drivers time in Friday’s Sprint qualifying session, but things improved on Saturday afternoon at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Piastri was provisionally quickest in the Q3 top-10 shootout and was able to improve to lap record pace to take his first-ever GP pole position.

Meanwhile, Norris, who was 0.090s shy of Piastri’s first attempt, was unable to get his final run hooked up and aborted the lap, resigning him to a still respectable third.

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While Norris acknowledged he improved over Friday, saying he did “a terrible job” in Sprint qualifying, he cited making errors again on Saturday.

“It was just tight and close, but it was a much better job than we did yesterday and I did yesterday,” he began. 

“So the car was feeling much better and I was feeling definitely more comfortable, just still too many mistakes from my side.

“I’m not as comfortable as I was in Australia. 

“I just haven’t done the best job and Oscar has done a very good job.”

Norris seeking self-improvement to handle knife edge McLaren

Asked to clarify why he’s not feeling as comfortable in the car as he did in Australia, Norris first pointed towards the differences in track characteristics between Albert Park and Shanghai.

“The layout’s very different here to Australia,” he said. 

“Much more medium-speed, higher-speed corners there, obviously some slow speed too, but that and just the car.”

Norris then doubled down on his assessment of the MCL39, fast, but able to punish the driver behind the wheel.

The five-time GP winner also admitted he needs to improve in order to adapt to the precarious nature of his new F1 machine.

“It’s definitely the quickest car, but it’s still tricky to drive,” he said. 

“We can easily do good sectors every now and then, but putting a lap together…

“It seems tricky to understand how to do it consistently enough. But when you do that kind of good job, then it can easily be the quickest car. 

“[It’s] a couple of things and just more my driving also, just that rhythm of knowing exactly what to do, where, how much, also when you have the tyres and if you push a bit too much on the tyres, it can bite quite quickly too. 

“So, many different things, but also just Oscar’s done a good job and I’ve not done a perfect job and it’s tight. 

“I just pay the price for not doing well enough.”

F1 2025 Chinese Grand Prix – Qualifying Results

Looking forward to Sunday’s race, Norris said he’ll need to put the work in overnight to challenge.

“Oscar’s showing great pace,” he said. 

“I definitely haven’t, especially from the race pace and whenever we struggle with front graining, it’s something I just struggle with a lot, like personally. 

“So it’s difficult for me. It’s been, therefore, a difficult weekend just trying to deal with those things. 

“It’s something I’m not strong enough in. But, yeah, I’ve got a long night ahead of me to sit down and go through the data and see what I can improve for tomorrow.”

READ MORE – Lando Norris feeling ‘dreadful’ after first-lap blunder in F1 Chinese GP Sprint