McLaren had a disastrous outing in qualifying on Friday at the Qatar Grand Prix as both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had their times deleted due to exceeding track limits. As a result, the Briton ended up dropping from second to all the way down to tenth. Meanwhile, the Australian dropped from third to sixth on the grid. With both Norris and Piastri dropping down the grid, Lewis Hamilton was promoted from fifth to third. However, the Mercedes driver was not happy with the ruling.
The 38-year-old explained how drivers do not gain any advantage by exceeding track limits at the Lusail International Circuit. As a result, he stated during his post-qualifying press conference that Norris should have been up there instead of him.
Lewis Hamilton expresses his frustrations with track limits
While speaking in his post-qualifying interview, Lewis Hamilton explained how drivers usually end up losing time when they exceed track limits by going beyond the kerbs. As quoted by racingnews365.com, Briton said, “When you go beyond the highest point of the kerb, we do lose time, so I’m not really sure at this track if we need to have track limits“.
“lando should be up here” ☹️
— comfort lando (@safeforlando) October 6, 2023
He then added, “As I said, when you go beyond them, you should be able to utilize this (kerbs) as much as possible. But when you go beyond you lose time, so the white line [that marks track limits] shouldn’t be necessary“.
After stating the same, Hamilton concluded by stating that Norris deserved to have qualified on the front row despite the stewards deeming that the 23-year-old had exceeded track limits. While the 38-year-old has expressed his support for his compatriot, Norris was unhappy with his own lap.
Lando Norris was furious with himself after qualifying
After seeing himself drop from the front row to tenth on the grid, Lando Norris expressed his frustrations in his post-qualifying interview. Even though the Sky Sports interviewer attempted to console the Briton by telling him that he could still salvage something from the rest of the weekend, the 23-year-old was yet unhappy.
While speaking in his post-qualifying interview, Norris said, “The team have done a good job, I just messed it up. I don’t think like that (salvage something later on in the weekend). I just think of the job I meant to do today. Which is put in good laps, don’t make mistakes, and that’s all I did today [make mistakes]. So not a good day for me“.
Similarly to Norris, McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri was not happy with his lap either. The Australian explained how tight it is because of the track limits and how it means that the drivers cannot afford to make any mistakes. However, with the sprint race to follow on Saturday, the 22-year-old hopes to make McLaren’s strong pace this weekend count then.
