At the F1 Qatar Grand Prix Sprint, Lando Norris had to overcome a variety of obstacles, but his unrelenting tenacity and outstanding racing prowess were evident. Despite a difficult start that saw him drop four places to 6th, Norris fought bravely and showed his skill on the track.
While George Russell, Carlos Sainz, and Charles Leclerc opted for soft tyres, Norris, Piastri, and Verstappen went with the medium compound. Initially, Norris faced a challenge as the soft tyre runners surged ahead.
However, Norris carved his way through as the race progressed. He successfully overtook both Ferraris and Russell, ultimately securing third place in the sprint race.
Reflecting on the race, Norris remarked: “It was a tough race for me… A bad start made everything much trickier, but we fought back well; some fun racing, good overtakes, all the way to the last lap on George. It’s another podium for us and for our team, so it’s been a mega day.”
Starting from the challenging right side of the grid and on medium tyres, Norris faced an uphill battle. He admitted: “It was very tough; any chance to go backwards, I pretty much took; the right side of the grid, which was a lot worse than the left; on the medium, it was going to be very, very tough.
“It’s not been my weekend in a way, just made some mistakes here and there, but I still fought well.
“I didn’t think I’d get George, to be honest, but the DRS was pretty significant, so I managed to get him into turn one from a long way back.”
Despite his impressive recovery, Norris couldn’t help but express his frustration with his performance and costly mistakes in qualifying throughout the weekend so far, saying: “With myself, I don’t think I’ve ever been so frustrated, the team has done an amazing job.
“It’s always we should’ve could’ve would’ve, (..) I should’ve been on pole today; I should’ve at least had a good shot at it yesterday against Max; I just made too many mistakes, which have cost me positions today and tomorrow, starting P10 when we have a good car to finish in the top 3 easily.
“I just made my life tough, the team’s life tough, when it should be the complete opposite, and we should be going from the front.
“I can say everyone has those weekends; I can say this was the weekend for me; it’s a shame I’m doing it when the car is as good as it is; that’s what makes it more frustrating.”
Despite the challenges, Norris believes in the pace of his car; he expressed his hope for a better position tomorrow and clenching a potential podium, stating: “I hope a lot; I just need to stay out of carnage, the first couple corners are pretty sketchy, depending on what tyres we start one, but the main thing is staying out of harm’s way.
“We have the pace; I think we have reasonable degradation, maybe not the best, compared to the Red Bulls.
“I think we have good pace to be on the podium, but whether we can do it or not from P10 is gonna be the question.”
