Lando Norris ‘disappointed' after qualifying crash at Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Photo by Mark Sutton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is one of the fastest street circuits in the world. Its combination of high speeds, 27 corners, and the ever-looming walls push drivers to the limit, and punishes the smallest of mistakes.
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That was the fate of Lando Norris during qualifying for the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
On another week that saw Norris enter qualifying as the favorite, the McLaren driver came out on the wrong end of the proceedings. Last week it was at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where Norris could only qualify sixth after running strong over three practice sessions. On Saturday along the Red Sea Norris again entered qualifying as the favorite, but a wobble during his first run in Q3 saw him hit the wall at the exit of Turn 5, ending his dreams of pole position:
While the important thing is that Norris was okay after the impact, the slight mistake opened the door for Max Verstappen to snatch pole position and raised more questions about the fight for the Drivers' Championship.
'I'm just disappointed with today,' began Norris when speaking with Sky Sports F1 following his abrupt exit from qualifying.
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'I know I have to look forward to tomorrow and I'll go now and see my engineers and we'll look ahead to what we can do tomorrow. We know the car is good, we know the car's quick,' continued the McLaren driver. 'I'll go and see my engineers and apologise and then see what we can do for tomorrow, try and put a good plan in place. But tomorrow we're going to need a bit of luck.
'It's been such a smooth, positive weekend so far, so disappointed to have such a setback,' continued Norris when speaking with the official F1 channel.
'I've got to take it on the chin.'
Norris downplayed his chances for a charge to the front, noting that overtaking is often difficult on the punishing Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
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'It's so difficult, it's almost impossible to overtake around here, so I'm not expecting anything magical,' added Norris when speaking with Sky Sports F1. 'But we have a good car. If we can work our way up to the top five or six, I would be happy.
'Oscar wasn't on pole, our pace was clearly not that much better than Max. Even George [Russell] is not that far away, so I think to get close to them is not very realistic, but to try to get to the top five is probably our target.'
Norris entered the weekend with just a scant three-point lead over Piastri in the Drivers' Championship, with Verstappen only eight points off his pace. But given where the drivers will line up to start Sunday's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, there is a very good chance Norris is looking up at one — or more — drivers in the standings come Monday morning.
Still, the team around him vowed to pick him up ahead of the race.
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'Just focus on the race. It will probably be a one-stop race, but the high likelihood of Safety Cars around here,' said McLaren CEO Zak Brown to Sky Sports F1 when asked how the team will get him ready for Sunday.
'So just focus on the race, do the best we can, and see if we can get him further up the grid.
'He'll certainly be faster than he qualified.'
Will that be enough to maintain his lead in the Drivers' Championship?
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