Lando Norris left ‘pissed off’ as FIA take P2 qualifying spot away

Lando Norris admitted he is “pissed off” after two track limits breaches in Q3 left him down in 10th on the grid for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix.

Having emerged as the closest threat to Max Verstappen’s dominant Red Bull at Suzuka two weeks ago, Norris and McLaren had the speed once again in Lusail but were unable to string laps together consistently in qualifying.

After initially having a lap time deleted in Q1, Norris went on to breach track limits on both of his Q3 efforts in Qatar, turning second on the grid into 10th.

Lando Norris distraught with Qatar qualifying errors

His team-mate Oscar Piastri, who claimed his maiden podium finish last time out in Japan, was initially promoted to third after Norris’s punishment before having his own lap deleted, leaving him down in sixth.

Norris was visibly upset after the session and went on to express his annoyance to Formula 1, admitting he was “pissed off” by the mistakes.

“I just had a correction of oversteer and I went off,” he said. “The team have done a good job, I just messed it up.”

Put to him that there will be opportunities to make up for his mistake on F1’s fourth sprint weekend of the season, Norris replied: “I know, but I don’t think like that.

“I just think of the job I’m going to do today, which is putting in good laps. I made mistakes and that’s all I did today, so not a good day for me.”

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Despite his own track limits breach, Piastri was more hopeful of mounting a strong recovery over the remainder of the weekend and was pleased with the pace of the McLaren around a challenging circuit.

He added: “Obviously a shame, but the car felt reasonable. A shame because the car was quick.

“We obviously get another crack at it tomorrow in [sprint shootout] qualifying and then the sprint too, so we’ll see what we can do.

“我认为这是非常紧密的,很容易使a mistake. The track’s very slippery, so it’s not making things easy for us. We’ll try again obviously.

“It’s a shame that we’re a bit further back down for the main race where the most points are, but there’s definitely points up for grabs tomorrow.”

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