Saturday in Azerbaijan saw Lando Norris sensationally get knocked out in Q1 as the Brit will start in P17 for the race tomorrow.
After Esteban Ocon hit the wall at turn 4 on his push lap, he was cruising around back to the pits with a puncture. A white flag was thrown on the exit of turn 16, and Norris aborted his lap as per the rules.
The Brit did have a big moment over the kerb as he bottomed out. As he exited turn 15, the panel on the run to the next corner briefly went yellow before the green flags came out again.
The 24-year-old was P5 in Q1 following the first runs of everyone. Due to new tyres, massive track evolution, and his failure to improve his lap, the McLaren driver will be on the ninth row tomorrow.
Norris has looked a tad off his usual pace this weekend, even if he said post-qualifying that things were feeling fine during Q1.
“No we weren’t really on the back foot, just the guy ahead of me crashed and those yellow flags.
“I was feeling good.”
Norris was left to bemoan Ocon’s crash, feeling understandably frustrated after missing out on potentially a front row start tomorrow.
He’ll begin 11 spots behind Max Verstappen, with a 62-point deficit likely to be added to.
“I mean, when you have a 2km straight and you have to lift at the beginning, of course [it’s over]. Nothing I could do, honestly.
“I’m of course a bit disappointed and frustrated, but nothing I can change.”
From 17th, keeping it clean on the first lap will be a priority for Norris as he looks to score some points to help the team in the Constructors’ Championship.
However, he expects overtaking to be extremely difficult. With plenty of teams going for a less loaded rear wing in the midfield and towards the back, the 2-time race winner is expecting a tough day at the office.
McLaren do have a pace and tyre degradation on pretty much the whole field, nonetheless.
“I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer. Try and race and go forwards and overtake, but it’s not as simple as saying it.
“I think everything is going to have to be done with strategy because you can’t overtake.
“There’s plenty of cars at the back which just take all the wing off and just hope for the best. That makes it impossible for a lot of cars to overtake them.
“I mean, the car is quick and we kind of hope that it can come into our hands and at some point I can get clean air, but on a street circuit everything gets backed up so much, you just kind of get forced into a position and you can’t do a lot at times.
“So we’ll hope for the best, but I don’t expect anything magical unless a strategy comes into play.”
Pushed on whether it has a bigger affect for him because of his championship situation, Norris sounded nonplussed about things.
“It doesn’t make a difference for me.”
