‘It felt pretty shocking’ – Norris explains how car damage impacted British Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying

Lando Norris has revealed how damage sustained during Sprint Qualifying at the British Grand Prix resulted in his car feeling “pretty shocking” to drive, with the Briton ultimately settling for P6.

Free Practice exposed the gap between McLaren and their rivals earlier in the day, as Oscar Piastri wound up over eight tenths adrift of Lewis Hamilton’s benchmark while Norris was marginally further behind, leaving them with just a few hours to make changes for the next session.

Any improvements were cancelled out when the Briton’s car shed debris in SQ2, which was part of his broken front brake duct that the team rushed to fix before the top-10 shootout. They managed to replace it in time for Norris to head out on track with the remaining drivers in the final few minutes.

Asked if the damage had hampered his performance, Norris said: “Yeah, actually a lot more than I thought because it was only on the final run that we managed to fix it. The guys did a good job on fixing it for the final run, but the car was just completely different and way better.

“It felt pretty shocking for most of it. Just lucky that we managed to fix it because it felt like a completely different car, but by the time I got the feeling for the final lap, I felt like I could’ve just pushed way more. Just unfortunate today but I think the pace was still there or thereabouts.”

Behind polesitter Hamilton and second-placed Kimi Antonelli – who were separated by just 0.011s – several drivers were remarkably close in Sprint Qualifying, with P3 to P7 covered by just 0.075s.

The small margins over one lap look encouraging at first, but Norris was acutely aware that he will line up alongside Mercedes’ George Russell, who qualified fifth after struggling to match his team mate.

“I think maybe the Red Bull we can potentially compete against, but the Mercedes of George is clearly just a lot quicker,” Norris said. “To fight a much quicker car like that is going to be difficult but you never know. I felt happier at the end – I just need to understand a few things and see what we can improve into tomorrow.

“For Lewis to be on pole for tomorrow is a cool thing for all the fans. Again, still a cool thing even for me to see.

“Unfortunately we don’t have the pace to compete against them but it’s always just nice to see the fans, see the yellow, see my grandstand. Hopefully we can have a better day for them tomorrow.”

After shooting to the top of the times as the first runner in SQ3, the second McLaren of Piastri dropped down to P7 and was similarly left searching for pace ahead of Saturday’s Sprint, which gets underway at 1200 local time.

Prompted on whether the result reflected their spot in the pecking order, the Australian said: “Yeah, more or less. I think after practice we looked pretty slow so it’s about where we thought we’d be – I think, to be honest, probably closer to that next pack behind Kimi and Lewis. A tricky day but we’ll try and improve for tomorrow.

“[The car] improved a bit, definitely, but not as much as we need unfortunately. I felt like I’ve really been on it today – we’ve just not had the pace. Bit of a shame but we’ll try again tomorrow.”