Lando Norris had a disastrous qualifying session in Baku as he will start the race from down in 17th. The Briton failed to reach Q2 after he had to abort his final run during Q1 because of a yellow flag. McLaren have now questioned the FIA’s decision to bring out the yellow flag as they believe there was no real danger.
The yellow flag was brought out after Esteban Ocon suffered a puncture after colliding with the wall. Since Norris was in the same sector at the time, he had to slow down and eventually abort his lap.
Lando Norris after Qualifying:
“Lap was easily good enough, just a yellow flag so I had to back off.
I hope there’s plenty of chances, but I’m not expecting so, and there’s a lot of cars behind who are very low downforce, which will be pretty much impossible to overtake.” pic.twitter.com/aU7YyExhTB— McLaren News | (@McLarenF1_News) September 14, 2024
With this proving to be costly, McLaren have now approached the FIA to seek answers about why the yellow flag was brought out in the first place. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said in an interview, “We were discussing now with the FIA as to why a yellow flag was displayed at that moment in time, which was extremely costly.”
“The team didn’t say it because it was displayed last minute and we checked right now in our tools and it is actually displayed as a yellow, so we were in conversations with the FIA as to why that happened because the yellow flag isn’t necessary when there’s just a slow car, it is not on a flying lap”, he added.
Norris too stated after qualifying that his lap was good enough to make it to Q2, had it not been for the yellow flag as he had to “back off”. Now, with him starting all the way from the back, the #4 driver will have it all to do if he is to score a good number of points and finish in touching distance of his championship rival Max Verstappen, who will start the race from P6.
Norris expects a difficult race after his dismal qualifying
After a nightmare qualifying performance, a dejected Norris stated that he expects to have an incredibly difficult race on Sunday. When asked if he believes he has the pace to make his way to the front during the race, he 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].”
If Norris does not manage to salvage a decent finish during the race, he will see his chances of fighting Verstappen for the title further slip away. As things stand, the Dutchman has a healthy 62-point lead over him in the championship.
In none of the previous years has any driver managed to cover up such a lead, with just eight races remaining in the season. What’s worse for Norris is that he could also end up losing second place in the championship as well to Charles Leclerc or McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, considering the way he has been performing.
Norris currently has a 24-point lead over third-placed Leclerc, who will start Sunday’s race from pole. Meanwhile, Norris has a 44-point lead over Piastri, who will start the race on the front row alongside the Monegasque.
