Lando Norris admitted he has made too many mistakes so far this weekend after qualifying third on the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix.
He was comfortably quickest in the single practice session at the Shanghai International Circuit yesterday. However he only qualified sixth for the sprint race after two scruffy laps in SQ3.
He fell to eighth in the race after running wide at turn six on the first lap of the race. That result allowed Max Verstappen to cut his championship lead to just two points.
He rebounded in qualifying for the grand prix, setting a new track record during Q2. But he couldn’t beat his time in the final phase of qualifying, and his team mate Oscar Piastri and George Russell capitalised, limiting Norris to third on the grid.
Nonetheless Norris felt he did a better job in qualifying for the grand prix. “It’s tight and close but it was a much better job than we did yesterday – and I did yesterday,” he said. “The car was feeling much better and I was feeling definitely more comfortable.”
However he admitted there were “still too many mistakes from my side.”
“I’m not as comfortable as I was in Australia,” explained Norris, who won from pole position in Melbourne. “It’s just tricky, but it is for everyone, and I just haven’t done the best job. Oscar has done a very good job.”
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While Piastri suggested the team had made the wrong choice of run plan for sprint race qualifying – doing two runs instead of one – Norris said he simply hadn’t done a good enough job. “I don’t think it was so much run plan,” he said. “I just think we didn’t get as much out of the car yesterday.
“I obviously locked up and went straight. The car’s easily quick enough for pole, so I just did a terrible job yesterday.”
Teams have encountered far more graining than they expected in Shanghai, due to the new track surface and Pirelli’s mandated increase in tyre pressures. Norris said he has found that particularly difficult to cope with.
“Oscar’s shown great pace, I definitely haven’t, especially [on] the race pace. Whenever we struggle with front graining, it’s something I just struggle with a lot personally, so it’s difficult for me.
“It’s therefore been a difficult weekend just trying to deal with those things. It’s something I’m not strong enough in. I’ve got a long, long night ahead of me to sit down and go through the data and see what I can improve for tomorrow.”
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2025 Chinese Grand Prix
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