Lando Norris felt third was possible on the Austrian Grand Prix Formula 1 grid but conceded he "crapped" himself at the final corner out of fear. Armed with the first raft of McLaren upgrades at the Red Bull Ring, Norris was on the pace throughout the qualifying hour, eventually earning his best result of the season with fourth on the grid. But the British driver felt there was a missed opportunity to be even higher when becoming scared of losing his final lap due to track limits, which were being vigorously enforced throughout.
Norris's fear
"As a driver, I'm complaining because I could have been P3," Norris told Sky Sports F1. "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."
Upgrades delivering
After a tricky start to the season with just 17 points from the first eight races from both cars, McLaren is optimistic that the sizeable package only Norris is running this weekend will help propel the team into points contention on a more consistent basis. Norris felt the decision to bring the upgrades to Spielberg "had paid off" immediately. "I'm super happy that the guys did a good job to get all the bits here this weekend," he added. "It's paid off straightaway, but it was not a very good day from start to finish. "We had a few issues [in practice], which meant that we were even more limited on running, but 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."
Most read
