F1 News
Norris lambasts himself after poor sprint race: "I feel dreadful"
A hugely critical Lando Norris says he "feels dreadful" after finishing P8 in the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix, so far unable to back up his fantastic start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend.
Friday's sprint qualifying session was the start of the issues for the Brit, only able to come in P6 when the chequered flag fell, However, things went bad to worse in the sprint race, with a poor start and opening lap meaning he dropped three placed to P9, where he stayed for the majority of the race.
Norris did manage to get himself into the final points-paid position of P8 before the end of the race, but it was not the type of performance he or many others were suspecting after fomenting in Melbourne last time out. He will be hoping for much more pace in qualifying later on Saturday for Sunday's Grand Prix.
Norris says Shanghai has been "a lot thicker"
"I lost a few positions on lap one just to avoid a bit of contact, which was my own fault. But after that, I was just slow. So there was not a lot that went wrong, I just have to look at a lot of data and try to improve," Norris told Viaplay.
Norris was asked why it was difficult to compete at the front: "Because I was slow. I struggled with the car, I am not very good in these conditions. Our advantage this weekend is a lot less than last weekend, so it's a lot trickier. I struggled a lot in these conditions myself... I was just slow," said the McLaren driver.
Norris was also asked about qualifying later on Saturday and how he will approach it when speaking to Sky Sports: "It's just another session. It's qualifying, so I'll be a bit more confident. During the race, especially at the start, I just feel dreadful. There's a lot of work to do, but I'm ready."
This article was written in collaboration with Estéban den Toom
Want more Formula 1? Then follow GPblog on our various social media channels!