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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has explained a fuel system issue cost Lando Norris a banker lap in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix – only for the British driver to compound the problem with his own “silly” mistake.
Norris will start a miserable 18th on the grid for the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, moving up a position after qualifying 19th due to Yuki Tsunoda serving penalties for a power unit replacement.
The downward spiral for Norris began when his team told him to abort his medium-tyre run that would at least have provided him with a platform.
After initial confusion from Norris as to why he was forced to return to the garage, Stella explained: “We had uncertainty with the fuel system that we needed to check.
“Therefore we decided to call the car in, have time to check, and then be ready to go on the final run on softs, which in any case would have been the decisive run.
“So we thought, rather than taking the risk that the problem actually forces us not to do the run on softs, we just wanted to take the prudent approach and pull the car in.”
Despite that, Norris still had time and opportunity to comfortably reach Q2, but was first compromised by a spin from Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin, and then on his final run, he pushed too hard under pressure and made an error through Turn 12.
“I just braked too late,” said Norris. “I just wanted to push a little bit more than I had to, and I was easily in, so it was quite silly of me to push quite as much as that.
“It was a shame. The one opportunity that I needed to put a lap in, I locked up and went off.”
Norris knows he has a good race car underneath him and sees no reason why he cannot finish in the top 10 at the end of the 71 laps.
With team-mate Oscar Piastri starting seventh, albeit after his own issues in Q3, Norris said: “The pace is good, and Oscar’s doing a good job.
“I probably should have gone P1 if I put my lap in before, but there’s a lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda’s from me at the minute, so it’s a shame.
“But points will be our target, it’s all we can do.”
