Lando Norris said the decision to lead the field out at the end of Q3 ended up costing him as he qualified a lowly seventh for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
However he denied it was a missed opportunity to put more distance between himself and championship rival Oscar Piastri, who crashed out earlier in the session and will start the race from ninth.
“Of course I would have liked a better result in this kind of scenario, but we just made the wrong decision, which we’ll punch ourselves about it now, but it easily could have gone our way,” he told Sky after qualifying.
Norris was the first driver to complete a lap in the final runs in Q3. He moved up to second place, but fell behind others who completed laps later as the damp track began to dry out.
“Sometimes you risk it, sometimes you don’t,” he said. “It’s also a risk to go out last and hope the track is a bit better, but risk the yellow and the red [flags].
“You win some, you lose some. So I’m not the happiest about today, but there’s long race tomorrow to try and get some more points.”
Norris almost failed to complete his lap after hitting the barrier at the exit of turn 15. However he doubts that moment was where he lost most of his time.
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“I don’t have a delta so I don’t know how much I lost,” he said. “Two tenths, maybe, so a couple positions but not 1.1 seconds to Max [Verstappen].
“I think it was a mistake from my side, from our side, to go out of the pit lane first. It could not have been: if there was a yellow flag further back, or a red, we would have looked like the heroes and everyone else would have looked like losers. Now, I kind of look like the loser and them heroes.
“It’s the price you pay sometimes around here and the risks you’ve got to take. But it was still spitting a little bit, so I think anyone who is further back, just had more grip.
“It’s just a risk – not even a risk – just a decision that didn’t work out in the end. So it’s something we’ll review and try and do better next time.”
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