A fuming Lando Norris again berated himself following a qualifying session after a mistake cost the McLaren driver a shot at the front row of the grid for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
After setting the fastest time in the first sector at the Yas Marina Circuit on his second flying lap in Q3, a strong second sector saw the Briton a tenth-of-a-second up on his first run before a wild slide out of Turn 13 proved ruinous, leaving him starting fifth, 0.371secs behind polesitter Max Verstappen in his Red Bull.
It was not the first time this season Norris had emerged from qualifying knowing he had let himself and the team down via an error of his own making, as occurred in Hungary, Austin, Mexico, and Brazil.
Believing he potentially lost four-tenths of a second with his latest blunder in Abu Dhabi, and with it a possible pole position, Norris lamented: “It was a terrible day for me.
“Any mistake in qualifying, when you are fighting for a good position, is frustrating. But I’m just making so many mistakes on a Saturday at the minute.
“Every other lap was among my best. Q1, Q2 were among my best laps, and my first lap in Q3 was very strong. It’s just this one little mistake. I don’t know why it happened. I’ve not done that all weekend so it’s frustrating.
“I’m just doing a shit job on Saturday!.”
Asked whether he was being too hard on himself, Norris offered a contrary opinion.
“Not at all,” insisted Norris. “I was fighting for P2 and I ended up P5 because of a stupid mistake. I’m too soft on myself.”
Norris was one of the 10 drivers who sat out first practice on Friday, giving up his seat for Pato O’Ward as per the regulations in allowing a rookie an FP1 opportunity in any season.
For second practice, in representative conditions for qualifying and the race given the twilight-to-night effect, Norris and the rest of the field were heavily compromised by crashes involving Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg in his Haas.
It resulted in two red flags and the loss of 34 minutes of track action of the hour-long run, leaving Norris, amongst others, with little idea as to how his car will fare on heavy fuel, in particular.
Assessing his chances in the race, Norris said: “I’ve no idea. I did FP2, there were two red flags. I’ve not done more than one lap in a row this weekend. I’ve not done one lap with more than 50 kilos of fuel.
“But the car has been very good all weekend with the few laps I’ve done, so we’ll find out.”
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