Lando Norris conceded that he “crapped himself” out of fear and this cost him a third-placed finish at Friday’s qualifier.
The McLaren driver excelled in the race, keeping on pace throughout, and earning his best result of the season with a fourth-placed grid position for Sunday line up.
The McLaren team armed Lando’s 765LT Spider with an array of upgrades for the Red Bull Ring, which proved effective.
However, the British racer still feels he missed out on scoring higher in the ranks when he got scared about losing his final lap due to track limits.
These track limits have been resolutely enforced throughout the qualifiers.
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Speaking to media sources after the race, Lando said: “As a driver, I’m complaining because I could have been P3. I made a little mistake, but I am happy nevertheless.”
“The last corner is very tricky because you’re kind of on the entry kerb, which makes the car very nervous – and I just missed the apex by a little bit.
“As it compresses, if you miss it, you want to steer so badly, and I just crapped myself as I thought I’d exceed track limits – I had to back out of it.
“It definitely cost me P3 – which I’m a bit annoyed by because I would have loved to have out-qualified [Carlos] Sainz, but I am happy with fourth.”
McLaren has seen a difficult start to the 2023 season, gathering only 17 points from both of its cars so this result should be taken as a positive.
The McLaren team remains optimistic that the “sizeable package” Norris is running this weekend will propel the team into points contention on a consistent basis.
Norris agrees with his team, saying that the upgrades brought to Austria “had paid off.”
He commented: “I’m super happy that the guys did a good job to get all the bits here this weekend.”
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“It’s paid off straightaway, but it was not a very good day from start to finish.”
Lando also discussed issues in practice which meant “we were even more limited on running.”
Despite this training setback, the British driver said: “To end with this quite new car, and to get it to work just as it should, the guys did a very good job to allow that, so a big thanks to them.”
Lando Norris placed third in the sprint race today, another stellar performance that will bolster his confidence ahead of tomorrow’s main event