Lando Norris admitted a mistake heading into turn one on his final flying lap perhaps denied him the opportunity to join team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. inside the top ten in Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.
The McLaren F1 Team racer will start his first Monaco Grand Prix from twelfth on the grid but felt that mistake into Sainte Devote cost him the chance at making it into the top ten shootout, a mistake he took full responsibility for.
Norris revealed the team reverted to a set-up similar to the one they used on his MCL34 during Thursday’s sessions in the principality after feeling the way they went with the car on Saturday morning was not to his liking, and he went into Qualifying unsure of how the car would feel on track.
“Overall I think it was a decent quali considering it was my first time here in Monaco in F1,” said Norris, who has two top ten finishes to his name in his opening five Grand Prix. “I struggled in FP3, perhaps we went in slightly the wrong direction, so went back to what we had on Thursday.
“It was a little bit of an unknown in terms of how the car was going to change but I had an idea from Thursday. I made a small mistake in Turn One on my final push lap which effectively cost me going in to Q3. I didn’t do it when it counted and that was my mistake.
“We made good improvements and maybe I wasn’t as confident compared to at some other tracks.”
