The qualifying session in Zandvoort took a lot of unexpected turns. Especially for Lando Norris, who missed out on Q3. Norris qualified P13, a low point for the driver, who has had a great season so far. He just couldn’t find the pace in his McLaren today.

The Briton blamed the extensive red flags for his low starting position. Norris’ Q2 came to an early end as both Williams drivers spun off the track in two separate instances. Eliminated and unable to improve his lap time, Norris heads towards a disappointing start on Sunday.

The driver was bitter about the outcome. “Too many red flags? Yes, that was the problem because I couldn’t make the second attempt. Of course, it also applies to the others, but I would have liked to have had another opportunity to enter Q3. We were very close.”

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Having consistently qualified in the top 10 this season, Norris also files the session as a grueling one. “It’s difficult because we are all very close, even with Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri and Alpine: they were probably the hardest-fought qualifying sessions of the year.” The McLaren driver was hard on himself and concluded by saying, “It was also my worst qualifying of the whole year, and putting the two together we understand today’s result.”

Bad qualifying streak for Lando Norris

Heavy-hearted, Lando puts his Spa qualifying ahead of the one in Zandvoort. Red flags aside, Norris lacked pace on the circuit today. He scraped through by the skin of his teeth; avoiding a Q1 elimination by placing 15th.

Norris was robbed of the opportunity to set better numbers on the timesheet but he can blame no one for the red flags. His teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, out-qualified him, placing 10th at the end of the three sessions.

With Norris starting the race a little further back than he is used to, will he manage to push his McLaren to battle the top contenders? The Ferrari drivers will be sharing the third row, so the McLaren drivers will have to work hard to retain their P3 on the constructors’ board. With the way the weekend has been so far, the Dutch GP will be one worth tuning into.

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