Lando Norris has fronted up about his accident during qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, admitting he made a ‘silly mistake’. The McLaren driver only managed one flying lap in Q1 before striking the inside wall at the final corner with his front-left wheel. Norris returned to the pits, but his mechanics were unable to repair the damage in time for the Briton to attempt another lap, condemning the Briton to a Q1 elimination and a 19th place start for Sunday’s race. Speaking afterwards, Norris rued his error, and paid tribute to his mechanics' efforts in repairing the damage to his MCL60. "Just a misjudgement, to be honest. Nothing much more, a mistake from my part," Norris told media, including RacingNews365.com . "A mistake that I shouldn't make, to be honest. It's probably one of the easiest corners on the track, in terms of judgment, and I just got it wrong, simple as that. No excuses. "I could feel the steering went straight away. The mechanics did a very good job to almost get me back out [on track]. I already said thanks to them for the effort."
Norris: Q3 was possible
Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri will line up ninth on the grid after becoming the first McLaren driver to make it through into Q3 in 2023, and Norris acknowledged that he had the pace to join his teammate in the final section of Qualifying. "Frustrating, of course, because the car was performing well today," said Norris. "The team have done a good job all weekend, we've done a good job all weekend to probably extract a bit more from [the car] than we did in Bahrain, and clearly it was good enough for Q3 today. "So yeah, a bit frustrated. I was still feeling good. Just a silly mistake, to be honest."
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