Lando Norris shows true colours after Mexico GP disaster and McLaren mistake

29 October 2023 , 02:26

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Lando Norris was frustrated with his qualifying result (Image: Getty Images)

Lando Norris pointed the finger only at himself for an abysmal qualifying result at the Mexican Grand Prix.

The Brit has been chief rival to Max Verstappen in recent weeks. But the McLaren star was condemned to just 18th place on the grid after a terrible session on Saturday ended much earlier than he would have liked.

McLaren had sent both Norris and Oscar Piastri out on the medium tyres at first, clearly hoping to save pair of softs for later in the session and believing they had enough pace in hand. They weren't the only ones to do it – Ferrari and Mercedes also started on the yellow-walled tyres.

But the Woking-based outfit were the only ones to abort and pit their drivers for softs before they had even put a time on the board. It meant they had just a few minutes to set a time quick enough for a place in Q2.

Piastri managed it without too much fuss, but Norris did not. His first soft lap was aborted when he made a mistake in the tricky second sector, while his final attempt was hampered when Fernando Alonso span his Aston Martin and brought out the yellow flags.

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While he seemed confused about the call to change tyre compounds, Norris did not want to blame anyone other than himself for his poor result. "I got told to box for some reason, [but] the pace was good," he said after the session.

"Something obviously wasn't right, but that wasn't a problem. I just made some mistakes on my one lap that I had. Obviously there was a yellow in the end from Fernando.

"So yeah, that one opportunity, that one lap that I was given, I didn't put it together. It went off and that was it. We turned around and went straight back out. We will speak about it after, but I had one lap and I didn't do it. So it is on me."

Piastri managed to make it through not only to Q2 but also to the final part of the session. The Aussie qualified seventh in the end, but felt there was more potential in his car and seemed slightly disappointed with the result.

"The pace looked good early on, we had a decent Q1, a decent Q2, we just struggled in Q3 with grip for some reason," said the high-flying rookie. "It just didn't really come together in Q3 and I don't really know why. That's probably the most frustrating part at the moment. We'll have a look and see what we can do tomorrow."

Daniel Moxon