McLaren ace Lando Norris has been left frustrated by a “stupid” error that cost him a shot at pole position for F1‘s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
On their final laps in Q3, Norris went quickest in the first sector of the Yas Marina Circuit, but a massive slide coming under the hotel in the final sector cost him some half a second.
He will instead line up fifth. Teammate Oscar Piastri will start third.
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“It was a terrible day for me,” Norris said.
“Any mistake in qualifying, when you are fighting for a good position, is frustrating. But I’m just making so many mistakes on a Saturday at the minute.
“Every other lap was among my best. Q1, Q2 were among my best laps, and my first lap in Q3 was very strong. It’s just this one little mistake. I don’t know why it happened. I’ve not done that all weekend so it’s frustrating.
“I’m just doing a shit job on Saturday.”
Norris was also asked if he was being too hard on himself.
“Not at all – I was fighting for P2 and I ended up P5 because of a stupid mistake.
“I’m too soft on myself.”
Piastri, too, indicated he could have found himself on the front row of the grid if he’d delivered a mistake-free lap.
“It’s been a bit of a messy one – pace has been there, just a lot of mistakes,” Piastri said.
“I made a little bit of a mistake as well, but it would have been quite a last corner to get to the front.
“I think I went into qualifying and I hadn’t done a clean lap all weekend (which) made life a bit more difficult for myself.
“Close, but not quite close enough.”
Friday practice was disrupted by multiple red flags, which means teams are going into Sunday without having completed a long tyre run.
Piastri said he had “not a clue” where he would end up at the end of the race.
“I don’t know – for everyone I think it’s going to be the same story,” he said.
“I think the most anyone’s done is probably five laps in a row this weekend.”
Max Verstappen will start the final race of the season from pole, and will be looking for a 19th win of the season.
Victory on Sunday would take the Red Bull driver onto 54 career wins, past former Red Bull star Sebastian Vettel and into third place all time.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start second, but his teammate Carlos Sainz will start from 16th after missing out on Q2 for the first time since 2019.
The poor showing could cost Ferrari hundreds of millions of dollars in prize money – the Italian marque trail the German Mercedes camp by just four points in the constructors championship.
George Russell will start from fourth, and Lewis Hamilton from 11th.
Daniel Ricciardo will start from 15th, but teammate Yuki Tsunoda will start sixth.
The lights will go out on the final race of the season at midnight Sunday.