Baku, Azerbaijan – Lando Norris downplayed the idea of having wasted a valuable opportunity to close the gap with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, in the fight for the championship, after brushing the wall in the final phase of Saturday’s qualifying.
Piastri, who leads Norris by 31 points in the overall standings, suffered a mishap by hitting the wall at Turn 4 during the final qualifying session. This caused a red flag and, with light rain falling on the circuit, Norris was the first driver to go out on track to set a time.
His return seemed promising until turn 15, where his single-seater grazed the TecPro barriers. The recorded time only earned him seventh position at the end of the session.
Verstappen, who came out of the pits a little later than the McLaren driver, achieved a comfortable pole position with a clean lap. Piastri will start two positions behind Norris, in ninth place.Lando Norris partirá séptimo, mientras que Oscar Piastri lo hará desde la novena posición.When asked if it was a missed opportunity, Norris replied: “No, because I did everything I could. The conditions were tricky, I went out first and, in the end, it was the wrong decision. If everyone else had had a yellow flag because someone went off the track behind me, they wouldn’t be asking me this question. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t.”
We thought we had made a better choice. I think it would have been if it wasn’t drizzling, but it just started drizzling again before the last exit. And going out first is just the wrong thing.
Lando Norris
Norris added: “So, something we’ll learn from. But no, the opportunities are there every weekend to be on pole. I try to do it every weekend. Today I struggled more for not making the best decision. But that’s something you see with the perspective of time, not a wrong decision at the time.”
Then he clarified: “I wanted to go out first, yes.”
This means that the fast McLaren drivers will have to make their way through the pack if they want to have any chance of winning the race. Norris believes that Verstappen will have it easy on Sunday. “Great for you guys,” Norris joked about that possibility.
“I hope it’s a good show. I don’t think we have the pace to beat Max. I think it will be fast. He’s been fast all weekend. They can easily win in Monza. They can easily win here again today, this weekend. I’m not sure about the victory, but we will try to get on the podium.”
