Lando Norris says his dominating car from Australia was “too difficult to drive” in China amid disappointing sprint-qualifying

Lando Norris had an underwhelming start to his Chinese Grand Prix after he qualified in P6 in the Sprint qualifying on Friday. Following the session, Norris admitted that he made a "mistake" during the qualifying, and will line up on the third grid on Saturday.

Fresh from his pole and victory in last weekend's Australian Grand Prix, Norris failed to continue the momentum as the #4 driver ended up being over five-tenths slower than the pole sitter Lewis Hamilton. In addition to this, he was also nearly five-tenths slower than his teammate, Oscar Piastri.

Norris clocked 1:31.393 on the timesheet and was 0.544 slower than Hamilton, who broke Michael Schumacher's pole lap record from 2004.

"I made a mistake," Norris admitted in the post-sprint qualifying interview. "I locked up in the last corner. We just struggled a bit more now, just not quick enough, simply."

In addition to this, the Brit also added that his car was "too difficult" to drive. Notably, this was the same 'rocketship' he drove in Melbourne last weekend where he emerged as the most dominant driver.

"Struggled a lot with the car. Just our difficulties that we've been struggling with showed a lot more today. So, nothing more than that, honestly. Just too many mistakes but just too difficult of a car to drive," Norris said.

Hamilton claimed the pole for Saturday's Sprint ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen. He was 0.018 seconds faster than Verstappen. With this, he secured his first sprint pole for Ferrari in just his second race.

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Lando Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri optimistic for Saturday's Sprint amid team's bittersweet outing

While Lando Norris qualified in P6, his teammate, Oscar Piastri managed P3 and will start alongside Charles Leclerc. Despite this, the Australian driver believes he has the pace to fight for the victory tomorrow.

Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes on track during Sprint Qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of China - Source: Getty

Here's what he said in the post-sprint qualifying session:

"I think quick at the wrong point. SQ1 and SQ2 went well. Then we tried something different and went out early for two laps, and I'm not sure that was correct, but we have pace in the car to fight from third."

George Russell starts from fifth, ahead of Norris, while Kimi Antonelli, Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon, and Lance Stroll complete the top 10 for the first sprint of the 2025 F1 season.