A formidable restoration drive to fourth place within the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was not sufficient for Lando Norris to shake the sensation that he was unfairly eradicated by a yellow flag in qualifying.
Norris was on his last timed lap of Q1 and set to enhance when he got here throughout the slow-moving Esteban Ocon within the last sector – a yellow flag appeared that meant Norris lifted and aborted his lap, regardless of Ocon having been limping again to the pits with a puncture for a while below a white flag that denotes a sluggish shifting automobile.
Whereas he climbed by from fifteenth to complete fourth forward of Max Verstappen on Sunday, Norris says the incident had a big impact on his scoring potential.
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“No, it wasn’t truthful, you don’t should be a scientist to work that out,” Norris mentioned. “It’s not for me to resolve, it’s not for me to say. It was unfair and for it to wreck my entire weekend… I do know I obtained a fourth and that’s not unhealthy, however it might have been higher. Oscar [Piastri] confirmed what was potential.
“It was unfair. There was no yellow the entire lap they usually put a yellow out simply as I got here previous. Did I’m going off the observe simply earlier than it? Sure. Would I’ve nonetheless simply obtained into the highest 15? Sure. I do know there’s lots of people that thought it will have ruined my lap, however even with my off observe, I solely misplaced a few tenths and I nonetheless would have simply been in.
“Individuals can say what they need and I discover quite a lot of it humorous however this was out of my management and it was one thing that was unfair. It value me a very good quantity of factors within the championship and type of ruined my weekend. So it’s disappointing, particularly due to how good the automotive was. I’m a man that was considering of what might have been, not how we did [in the race] essentially. However I’m very proud of [Sunday’s] efficiency.”
Though he was pissed off by the qualifying end result, Norris admits beating Verstappen had not been a sensible goal pre-race, with the workforce predicting eighth place to be the seemingly final result.
“Somewhat bit shocked, as a result of if you begin fifteenth you don’t anticipate to beat him. All of them boxed and we had been behind them, so I used to be about 22 seconds behind on actual phrases to the place they had been. So to create a spot forward of him after which to field and nonetheless overtake him, I wasn’t anticipating to do such a factor.
“However I might defend in opposition to Max as a result of he spent six laps making an attempt to catch up, just a few laps behind when the Ferrari was behind, and I knew his tires had been getting a bit scorching so he couldn’t assault me anymore. So I performed the sport properly and I knew I couldn’t defend in opposition to Carlos [Sainz], however I might defend in opposition to Max.
“However the primary level was I defended in opposition to Checo [Perez] and allowed him to not get forward of Oscar, which allowed us to go and get the win. So I did my small half for the workforce, which I’m very completely satisfied for as a result of it obtained us to P1 within the constructors’, in order that’s in all probability the factor that makes me the happiest.”
