Norris owns up to “bad” performance despite salvaging second on the grid | Formula 1

Lando Norris admitted he performed poorly in qualifying despite salvaging a place on the front row with his final lap of the session.

Before he clinched second on the grid Norris came close to being eliminated in the second round of qualifying. His first run in Q3 did not go well either, leaving him provisionally seventh on the grid.

“It was a pretty bad qualifying [session] on my behalf,” Norris admitted. He said his final lap was “the best lap I did in quali by like six tenths or something, so it’s impressive that I managed to improve so much – or probably impressive that I did such a bad job prior to that.”

He said he found it difficult to get back into his driving rhythm during qualifying. “I was hitting every kerb possible that I don’t want to hit and just locking up when I shouldn’t lock up,” Norris explained. “So just not quite in the rhythm.

“It’s not that I’ve not been in the rhythm this weekend. I’ve felt like I’ve done some reasonable laps so far this weekend and I felt like I had some good strengths here and there.

“But I just couldn’t click back into it come quali, until the final lap. But that’s also the only lap that I need to do it, so I’m happy that I did it in the end.”

He made a mistake at Rettifilo on his first lap in Q2 which left him on course for elimination. McLaren sent Norris out to do two laps with his second run in an attempt to maximise his chances of getting through.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“It definitely wasn’t the most comfortable I’ve ever been, just because I wasn’t in that rhythm,” said Norris. “To try and put in those laps, especially when you lock up in turn one, that’s the one place it’s hard. It kind of knocks the confidence the most.”

He fell to 11th place after the first lap of his second run, but improved enough with his final lap to reach Q3.

“My Q2 run two, first lap was pretty bad,” said Norris. “It was just so close. I think I improved almost a tenth, but it gained me six positions or something. It shows how such a small amount of lap time can help.

“I was definitely feeling [the pressure] in both Q3 run two and Q2 run two lap two. [It wasn’t] the best feeling inside the car at that point. That’s why I’m relatively happy I got into Q3 because I was out for a little while, and then to put it all together for Q3 run two as well.”