What Happened to Lando Norris?: “I Had to Back Off”

Lando Norris has had a nightmare start to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend as he only managed to qualify 17th. He revealed after the session that he had to back off and enter the pits due to a yellow flag.

When asked about what happened, he replied in the media pen, “The lap was good enough (to advance to Q2) but there was a yellow flag, so I had to back off“. During his conversation on the radio with his race engineer Will Joseph, he had asked whether he could register another lap time or not after the yellow flags came out because of a puncture to Esteban Ocon’s car.

In reply, Joseph said, “No, we have to box… Mate, I’m sorry, they shouldn’t have done that“. Norris was then asked to share his thoughts about what he expects from the race after a dismal qualifying. When asked if he will be able to make up the lost ground during the race, a dejected Norris replied,

“I don’t even think it’s as easy as that honestly. Following is pretty much impossible around here and overtaking is a lot worse than what everyone thinks. So, I hope I am wrong [tomorrow].”

Considering that Norris is trying to fight for his maiden F1 championship this season, his qualifying performance in Baku could prove to be a major dent to his title hopes.

His disastrous qualifying performance comes during a race weekend when McLaren had finally convinced Oscar Piastri to support his teammate in chasing down Verstappen in the drivers’ standings. However, Norris will now have to focus on damage limitation.