A powerful 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 closing timed lap of Q1 and set to enhance when he got here throughout the slow-moving Esteban Ocon within the closing 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 beneath a white flag that denotes a sluggish transferring car.
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.
“No, it wasn’t honest, you don’t need to 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 destroy my entire weekend… I do know I bought a fourth and that’s not unhealthy, however it might have been higher. Oscar confirmed what was doable.
“It was unfair. There was no yellow the entire lap and so they put a yellow out simply as I got here previous. Did I am going off the observe simply earlier than it? Sure. Would I’ve nonetheless simply bought into the highest 15? Sure. I do know there’s lots of people that thought it could have ruined my lap, however even with my off observe, I solely misplaced a few tenths and I nonetheless would have simply been in.
“Folks can say what they need and I discover a variety of it humorous however this was out of my management and it was one thing that was unfair. It price me quantity of factors within the championship and form of ruined my weekend. So it’s disappointing, particularly due to how good the automotive was. I’m a man that was pondering of what might have been, not how we did essentially. However I’m very proud of efficiency.”
Though he was annoyed by the qualifying consequence, Norris admits beating Verstappen had not been a sensible goal pre-race, with the workforce predicting eighth place to be the seemingly final result.
“A little bit bit shocked, as a result of once you begin fifteenth you don’t count on 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 attempting to catch up, just a few laps behind when the Ferrari was behind, and I knew his tires had been getting a bit sizzling so he couldn’t assault me anymore. So I performed the sport effectively and I knew I couldn’t defend in opposition to Carlos , however I might defend in opposition to Max.
“However the primary level was I defended in opposition to Checo 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 happy for as a result of it bought us to P1 within the constructors’, in order that’s in all probability the factor that makes me the happiest.”
