Lando Norris breaks silence on the disastrous F1 Chinese GP sprint

Lando Norris opened up about his disastrous outing in the Chinese GP Sprint on Saturday. Speaking at the post-sprint race interview, the McLaren driver admitted his fault on the first lap and stated how he "wasn't good" in the sprint.

Fresh from his victory in the Australian GP, Norris' time in China didn't go as planned as the McLaren driver had a couple of underwhelming outings in Friday's sprint qualifying, followed by Saturday's Sprint.

Norris qualified in P6 in the SQ3 after committing a mistake in the final flying lap yesterday and did the same on the first lap of the sprint today. As a result, he fell further back in the pecking order and came home in P8.

"Oh it certainly didn't help," Lando Norris said, speaking about if yesterday's qualifying put him at a disadvantage. "The further back you start, the harder it is. I set a bad first lap, and run into grass a little bit in turn six and lost a couple of positions, and then it was difficult to do a lot. Yeah, I mean quali didn't help, but I wasn't good today either."

Lando Norris started the race from P6, but after he made an error on Lap 1, ran wide, lost three places, and dropped down in P9. However, he could only do a little as he passed Lance Stroll in the latter half of the race, and finished in P8.

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How was Lando Norris' teammate, Oscar Piastri's Sprint race?

While Lando Norris had a day to forget in China, his teammate, Oscar Piastri, had a better result in the Sprint race. The Australian driver started his race from P3 after qualifying behind pole sitter Lewis Hamilton and P2 Max Verstappen.

Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL39 - Source: Getty

However, he worked his way out and got the better of Verstappen nearing the end of the race. With this, he secured P2 and helped McLaren retain the lead in the Constructors' Championship.

"I think we have good pace in the car, but the Ferraris look pretty rapid," Piastri said in the post-sprint race interview. "I think it was a really productive Sprint. Second is a good result and we learned a lot. The way I got the result is an encouraging thing. We didn't quite have enough pace for Lewis out front, but we have some good ideas for later and tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton claimed the Sprint race win for Ferrari in his second race for the Prancing Horse. Earlier on Friday, he broke Michael Schumacher's long-standing pole record that he set with Ferrari in 2004. With a time of 1:30.849 on the timesheet, he broke Schumacher's record of 1:32.238 in Shanghai.