McLaren’s Lando Norris rued that “a few mistakes from my side cost me” after he fell from pole position to sixth in the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint.
Norris put in a sterling effort in Friday’s Sprint Qualifying to take pole by a margin of over a second in wet conditions, but things went wrong from the outset in Saturday’s Sprint.
A poor start saw the McLaren driver side by side with Mercedes Lewis Hamilton going into Turn 1 and Norris elected to hang around the outside on the dirty line.
This caused the Brit to exit stage left and off-line, tumbling down to seventh before recovering a position when Fernando Alonso retired with a late-race puncture.
“I just lost it, there’s nothing else to say,” Norris said.
“I was just trying to keep it in the outside but with this tarmac and how crappy it is, I just went a little bit wide – coldish tyres and I just lost the rear. Yes, a shame, but it happens.”
Norris admitted that it was “a bit frustrating” to make such an error but also believes McLaren “struggled” for pace regardless, making it difficult to extract a large points haul in the Sprint.
The #4 papaya car found itself lingering just behind a DRS train comprised of Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc and could do little to move forward even when the quartet tussled late on.
“I was just hanging on because of the DRS, otherwise I would have dropped back massively,” he said.
“So, our pace was pretty poor and, also, I picked a bit of damage in the end, so, tough race, not what we were hoping for.
“A few points, and I feel we would have ended up in a similar position.
“Lewis ended up quite further ahead but I feel [Mercedes] were a bit quicker than us today, but not a lot.
“There were definitively more points up for grabs, but a few mistakes from my side cost me.”
Hamilton was asked about the Turn 1 duel with Norris in the post-race press conference and the more senior driver ruled that more patience on the McLaren driver’s part would have been beneficial.
“There’s a point when you go a bit too far then there’s there’s no grip out there and I think that’s what he [Norris] eventually found,” the Mercedes driver said.
“In that scenario, he should have just conceded and just parked up behind me.
“He probably would have had the pace to overtake me because the McLaren is very quick but I know he lost a lot of ground there but that’s racing.”
