Norris tagged the inside concrete wall through the final corner of the Jeddah street circuit to sustain a broken steering arm that forced him to pit for repairs after only one flying lap.
The team battled to repair the car in time for Norris during the opening 18-minute segment but narrowly missed the window to leave the Briton to start from 19th place.
Norris explained the error away as ājust a misjudgementā, adding that it was āa mistake that I shouldnāt makeā through the comparatively open left-hander.
He continued: āIt’s probably one of the easiest corners on the track, in terms of judgement. I just got it wrong. Simple as that. No excuses.ā
Norris said the outcome was particularly frustrating given the underlying pace of the MCL60, which enabled rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri to progress into Q3 and run ninth-fastest – but will start eighth due to Charles Leclerc‘s grid penalty.
āThe car was performing well today,ā said Norris. āThe team have done a good job all weekend to probably extract a bit more from it than we did in Bahrain [where Norris qualified 11th].
āIt’s definitely suited to the track a bit more than in Bahrain and clearly was good enough for Q3 today. I was still feeling good. Itās just a silly mistake, to be honest.ā
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
On sustaining the damage, Norris said: āI could feel it, it went straight away the steering.
āThe guys did a very good job, the mechanics to almost get it out. It pretty much was done by the end of the session so if I was into Q2, it would be fine.
āIf there was a small red flag, the guys were pushing as hard as they could to get me back outā¦ I let them down today.ā
Norris reckoned if he could avoid any first-stint collisions on the high-speed and narrow Jeddah circuit, he would be able to make sound progress up the order.
āI’m confident we have a reasonable car,ā he said. āIt might not be easy to overtake with where we’re strong and where we’re weak compared to some other cars. But of course, I’m optimistic that I can go forward.
āWe can definitely go forward. We have the pace to do it.
āIt is just going to be about putting that into a plan, whether there’s going to be VSC or a safety car. I hope so because it makes our life a little bit easier and it’s easier to jump two or three spots rather than one at a time.ā
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