Lando Norris entered last Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix very frustrated, having felt like he missed a golden opportunity to claim pole position and win the sprint race.
Norris showed great pace throughout the weekend at the Lusail International Circuit; however, he was one of many drivers to be caught out by track limits.
Friday evening’s qualifying session was particularly annoying for the Briton, who had both of his Q3 laps deleted for exceeding track limits.
Had he not exceeded track limits, then he would’ve started P2 on Sunday instead of P10.
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He was also narrowly beaten to sprint pole by his team-mate, before going onto finish third in the sprint and third in the main race.
Norris was frustrated after the sprint that he made the driver errors, especially as he lost several places on the first lap of the sprint due to starting on the dirty side of the grid.
“It was very tough,” Norris said in the post-sprint press conference.
“Any chance to go backwards, I pretty much took. Just from the right side of the grid, which was a lot worse than the left, on the mediums, it was always going to be tough.”
Given that he started 10th on Sunday, recovering to third was a excellent result; however, a chance at victory would’ve been on the cards if he didn’t exceed track limits in qualifying.
It was a weekend where Norris’ errors in qualifying really came back to hurt him, as his pace was better than Piastri’s who finished second.
He actually admitted after the race that he’s never “been more frustrated” with himself, as “too many mistakes” cost him a chance of victory in both the sprint and the main race itself.
“Depends what with? With myself, I don’t think I’ve ever been more frustrated,” Norris said when asked if he was frustrated.
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“With the team? Less than ever, the team has done an amazing job, it’s always a woulda, shoulda, coulda, and I’ll probably….I should have been on pole today.
“I should have at least had a good chance to go for it yesterday against Max, but I just made too many mistakes, which have just cost me.
“Cost me positions today, cost me positions for tomorrow, now have to start P10 when we easily have a good enough car to finish in the top three.
“I’ve 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 guess everyone has those weekends, this is the weekend for me. It’s just a shame I’m doing it when the car’s as quick as it is, that’s what makes it more frustrating.”