Lando calls himself an "idiot" after dropping places in Q3, but McLaren still well placed to increase lead over Renault in constructors' fight at Marina Bay
Saturday 21 September 2019 21:01, UK
Lando Norris lamented "stupid mistakes" for qualifying behind rivals Renault at the Singapore GP on an otherwise strong day for McLaren.
On an impressive debut appearance at the unforgiving and oppressive Marina Bay street circuit, Norris had finished sixth in both Q1 and Q2 but then slipped to 10th in the final phase after lapping 0.7s slower than he had gone before.
However, that later became ninth when Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified from Saturday's results.
"There are a lot of corners where it can go quite easily wrong, which is what I perfectly demonstrated in Q3," said Norris on Saturday evening.
The Englishman also tweeted his annoyance:
However, team boss Andreas Seidl: "It is impressive how these young guys are showing up here for the first time and building up [the pace] that quickly. If you look at what Lando did in the first session [on Friday], he takes some laps and then he's there and he's competitive.
"He's shown that throughout the whole weekend."
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Despite Norris' late qualifying disappointment, Saturday was a strong day for McLaren as they qualified ahead of main constructors' rivals Renault.
Carlos Sainz took seventh and will start one place behind Alex Albon's Red Bull.
"We're going to definitely try and get a good start and try to get a Red Bull out of it," said the Spaniard, whose career-best finish of fourth came in Singapore in 2017.
"We know they're going to be a bit quicker and they might push us but we've proved in Hungary and other places you can hold them up.
"It's going to be tough. The Red Bull is the better car obviously, the better package at the moment, but you never know how the race can pan out."
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