Lando Norris suffers shock elimination from Q1 in Azerbaijan in championship blow
Lando Norris was knocked out in the first part of qualifying in Azerbaijan.
Lando Norris was knocked out in the first part of qualifying in Baku, with an unfortunately-timed yellow flag compromising his final effort.
The McLaren driver will start Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix towards the rear of the grid, as he was knocked out in the first part of qualifying.
Lando Norris knocked out in Q1 in Baku
With both McLarens down in the bottom five, the elimination zone, as the 18-minute session ticked down into its final seconds, Oscar Piastri managed to get across the line to move into safety.
Both Piastri and Norris ran the same set of soft tyres throughout Q1 but, while Piastri made it through, Norris was caught out by a yellow flag which forced him to back off – not helped by him making a mistake at Turn 16 which saw him skating across the kerbs to lose forward momentum.
“Everybody got to do their second laps, and I didn’t,” Norris told Sky F1 after clambering out of his car in disappointment.
Starting from the back as Norris attempts to close down Max Verstappen’s 62-point championship lead in the Drivers’ Championship, his lowly position puts him massively on the back foot in that regard.
“I mean, I guess I’m going to have to hope so. It is what it is, but a long race ahead – we have some good tyres in the bank. So yeah I’ll try to drive forward and see what we can do tomorrow.
I’m still hopeful we can get a good result. The car is quick and the lap I was on, I could easily have gone second. It’s frustrating, but nothing I can do.”
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