Norris went second in Q3 in Losail for McLaren, which proved to be the second-fastest automotive via the high-speed corners behind Red Bull’s dominant polesitter Max Verstappen.
However the Briton instantly realised he would not begin there as he had caught a slide into the Flip 10 left-hander that spat him out vast previous the white line, which noticed his lap time deleted.
Norris additionally misplaced his first, nearly an identical, Q3 time and due to this fact dropped all the way in which all the way down to tenth on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix.
Afterwards he totally owned up for his messy qualifying session, and when requested by Sky Sports activities F1 if his automotive’s tempo nonetheless left him inspired for the rest of the weekend, he replied:
“I do not assume like that. I simply consider the job I am meant to do right this moment, which is put in good laps, do not make errors. And that is all I did right this moment, so not a great day for me.
“The crew has finished a great job; I simply messed it up. I simply had a correction on oversteer and went off.”
The slip up briefly promoted his team-mate Oscar Piastri from fourth to 3rd on the grid, however the Australian rookie additionally noticed his greatest lap scrubbed, demoting him to sixth.
Piastri felt the slippery observe was the primary issue behind a complete of twenty-two qualifying occasions being taken off the board for observe limits violations.
“I feel it’s totally tight and it is really easy to make errors, the observe could be very slippery, so not making issues simple for us,” he added.
George Russell, Mercedes-AMG, pole man Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, in Parc Ferme after Qualifying
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“Clearly, it is a disgrace that we’re a bit additional again now for the primary race, the place essentially the most factors are, however there’s positively factors up for grabs.
“We clearly get one other crack at it tomorrow in qualifying after which the dash too.”
Crew boss Andrea Stella acknowledged that it was “disappointing” that his drivers will begin sixth and tenth as an alternative of second and fourth. However he refused to name Sunday’s race an train in injury limitation, assured that each his drivers are capable of retake their positions on the entrance.
“It is a lengthy weekend forward of us and we do not solely wish to restrict injury, we wish to recuperate fully the positions and return to the place we belong,” he mentioned.
“It is unlucky, it is a bit disappointing, clearly, as a result of the consequence does not mirror the potential of the automotive, which right this moment was once more, fairly sturdy, which is encouraging.
“So, whereas it is a robust consequence to just accept, on the identical time the weekend is kind of lengthy. We have now a dash shootout, now we have a dash race, the race itself can be fairly lengthy and fascinating from a tyre standpoint, loads of alternative to recuperate.
“It appears to be like like on this sort of observe structure we’re the second drive in the intervening time.”