Norris lifted by Spa display despite hefty Q3 crash

McLaren’s Lando Norris says he drew confidence from his display at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix in spite of his hefty accident during qualifying.

Norris led the way through the first two parts of qualifying on Saturday at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in rain-affected conditions.

However Norris brought out the red flags at the start of Q3 when he crashed out through Raidillon amid worsening rain.

Norris underwent precautionary checks in hospital and was subsequently given the all-clear to return to action on Sunday.

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“Of course [it gave me] a lot [of confidence], especially if it is raining,” he said.

“It seems the difference between us and Mercedes and Red Bull is not so much. Also I can prove what I am capable of doing as a driver when it is raining. Not how it ended, I don’t want to prove this again!

“But it evens things out a little bit more, with George [Russell] finishing P2 it shows it is not all about the car. The driver needs to do a good job as well.

“If it rains I look forward to it, and [in the race] I wanted to make up for what happened. If it is dry we know where we are, we are not going to have the quickest car, but we’ll keep trying.”

Norris nonetheless retained third place in the standings after both Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez also missed out on points.

“I still feel confident [after the accident] and the car was really nice to drive,” he said.

“I feel bad because I gave the guys a lot of work to do. We should have had a lot of points, even if it is half points, we should have been the top five minimum, top three minimum I would say.

“So a lot of negatives but also a lot of positives, and we will try and use that one for next weekend.”