McLaren’s Lando Norris lamented the consequences of a qualifying crash that means he’ll start the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from 10th.
Norris was fastest through FP2 and FP3 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and was among the front runners in qualifying until the Q3 top-10 shootout.
The Briton admitted to being “clueless” after a Bahrain qualifying disappointment landed him in sixth last weekend, but an overzealous approach to Turn 4 in Jeddah saw Norris crash out on this occasion before setting a lap in the final segment of the session.
Norris was cleared by the medical centre post-session, but the biggest damage is to his race prospects, with overtaking limited in Saudi Arabia.
But what caused the crash?
“Nope, move on,” Norris said to Sky Sports F1.
Looking forward to the race, Norris found it hard to think through things after his Saturday disappointment.
“What am I thinking? Yeah, I’ve not put my mind to tomorrow yet,” he said.
“I’m just disappointed with today, I know I have to look forward to tomorrow.
“I’ll go now and see my engineers and we’ll look ahead to what we can do tomorrow.
“Yeah, we know the car is good, we know the car is quick.”
Lando Norris rues it’s ‘impossible to overtake’ in Jeddah
Norris’ major problem is his slender lead in the Drivers’ standings, three points over McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, who is only five points ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Verstappen went on to pip Piastri to pole position in Saudi Arabia after Norris’ crash and with overtaking options limited, he’s likely to lose his lead in the Championship.
“I’ll go see my engineers and apologise and see what we can do for tomorrow,” Norris continued.
“I’ll try to put a good plan in place, but tomorrow we’re going to need a bit of luck.
“It’s so difficult, it’s almost impossible to overtake around here, so I’m not expecting anything magical. But we have a good car.
“If we can work our way up to the top five, six, I would say I’ll be happy.
“Oscar wasn’t on pole, our pace was clearly not that much better than Max, even George [Russell], not that far away.
“I think to get close to them is not very realistic, but to try and get to the top five is probably our target.”
McLaren CEO Zak Brown added, “He said he was fine on the radio, but the car is a little bruised.
“We will get that fixed, and then go again tomorrow,” Brown continued.
“We will just focus on the race, it will probably be one-stop, but there is a high likelihood of a safety car, so we will do our best and see if we can get him further up the grid – he’ll certainly be faster than he qualified.”
READ MORE – Max Verstappen pips Oscar Piastri to F1 Saudi Arabia pole, Lando Norris crashes
