McLaren boss Andrea Stella has explained the sequence of events that left Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri with poor track position in qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris recorded just the seventh best time while Piastri left the road at Juncao as the weather closed in, leaving him without a time in 10th.
It was a disappointing end to the hour after Norris had topped Qualifying 2 and backed up that effort with pole for Saturday’s Sprint Shootout in which he finished second.
The crucial error happened early in Qualifying 3 as a storm cell hit the circuit and prevented any further attempts.
“We weren’t planning to go that late,” Stella admitted when asked about the situation by Speedcafe.
“We were kind of planning to go as soon as we saw somebody leaving the garage, but the operations to leave the garage were far too slow and we ended up seventh in the queue.
“It was just not a good execution.”
It was an error the team has already dissected with a view to preventing it in the short term.
A more in-depth review is set to be carried out once the team returns from Brazil next week.
“This was already discussed this morning,” Stella said following the F1 Sprint.
“We took already some corrective actions should anything similar happen in the future.
“This will obviously be further discussed next week because all these situations are opportunities to improve as a team in terms of racing.
“This doesn’t have to do with car performance, it has to do with racing, being robust and going racing, making sure that you can capitalise on the performance of the car.
“Yesterday, clearly, we missed an opportunity,” he added.
“As a team, we didn’t execute the right approach to be at the front of the group once the green light was shown.”
The outcome was Norris and Piastri attempting to complete their laps in rapidly deteriorating conditions.
Rain and rising winds ultimately saw the session red flagged before worsening such that, despite four minutes remaining in Qualifying 3, race control opted not to resume proceedings.
It proved the right call as intense winds damaged grandstands with heavy clouds leaving the track shrouded in darkness.
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix begins at 04:00 AEDT (14:00 local time).
