Qualifying ‘free-for-all’ more dangerous than slow driving

Lando Norris believes the “free for all” that ended Q1 was “a lot worse” than he and Lewis Hamilton driving slowly off-line in qualifying.

He and Hamilton were both investigated for allegedly driving unnecessarily slowly, but were eventually cleared by the stewards – and Norris felt this was the right decision, given the circumstances behind his and Hamilton’s jostle for position – as he explained.

“It wasn’t unnecessary, it was necessary,” he said, as per Motorsport.com. “He wanted a slipstream, I wanted a slipstream, and I didn’t want to pass him because of it. So he did nothing wrong, it’s racing. It was like second gear or something.

“Daniel [Ricciardo] did it to me a few years ago. Everyone knows it happens here at times. I don’t feel he did anything wrong. I probably would have done the same thing if I was in his boat.”

Lance Stroll’s crash at Turn 2 brought out the red flags towards the ends of Q1 in Baku, with only 2m30s left on the clock when the session restarted for the 15 drivers sat in the pit lane to try and set a lap.

Nice of the drivers to put on an extra sprint race to get to the flag on time. Spoiling us.#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 #F1

— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) June 11, 2022

Fernando Alonso ran too deep into Turn 15 on his flying lap and brought out the yellow flags, scuppering attempts for the drivers behind as he scraped through to Q2.

But the drivers involved were fighting for position as they looked to get a lap on the board, trying to overtake throughout the lap as they searched for ideal track position – with the risks attached to driving full throttle on an out lap in a packed field.

Because of that close-contact racing, Norris thinks that’s a significantly worse scenario than the ‘no, after you’ tactics in play by him and Hamilton – but added the caveat that the rules of engagement in such situations are not all “fair game”.

“I think what’s a lot worse and more dangerous is when everyone…