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Lando Norris has revealed that the major reason behind his disappointing qualifying was the damage he incurred in Q1.
The young driver's error early in qualifying left him with a damaged floor as a result of a trip over the gravel. The damage did impede him in the long run as the driver was out-qualified by his teammate Oscar Piastri.
Talking about his lowly grid position of P7, Lando Norris admitted that the car is not as quick in Spa as it has been in other races. He pointed out how the team struggled with the straight-line speed and it hindered the overall result for the team.
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Having said that, the driver did assert if it wasn't for the damage, he could have qualified higher on the grid. Speaking to Sky Sports, Lando Norris said,
"I think my laps were pretty reasonable I just had a lot of damage after Q1 so was a bit more of a struggle than for some of the others. To get into Q3 was already a good job by us with the damage we had. My Q3 lap was decent but not a lot more I could have done."
He added,
“Too early to tell (how can do rest of weekend). We’re definitely not as quick, we’re a long way off where we were in the last few races. Our straight-line speed is pretty poor. But Oscar’s middle sector is only two tenths off Verstappen so I think there are some positive signs. Hopefully that turns into better race pace. I think we would have been definitely more up there if I didn’t go off in Q1.”
Lando Norris gets out-qualified for only the second time this season
This was only the second time this season that Lando Norris was out-qualified by his teammate this season. The McLaren driver has an imperious record against teammates. His record against Oscar Piastri is very impressive and even against former teammate Daniel Ricciardo it was very dominant.
Looking forward to the race, Lando Norris will be starting the race in P7 while teammate Oscar Piastri will be starting in P5. The two teammates will have Max Verstappen in between them. In the wet weather, Red Bull's advantage does get normalized to an extent, and for a driver like Norris, if the race on Sunday features wet weather, he will be looking to capitalize on it in the best possible manner.
