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Lando Norris’s hopes of creating additional inroads into Max Verstappen’s System One championship lead took a blow on Saturday after qualifying a lowly seventeenth for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
A yellow flag proven on Norris’s last lap within the opening stage of qualifying compelled him to decelerate earlier than he ultimately deserted the trouble and returned to the pits.
His engineer, Will Joseph, was fast to apologize on the radio. Norris mentioned afterward on Sky Sports activities that he was “simply unfortunate” with the timing of the flag.
It was the primary time this season McLaren had did not get each vehicles by means of to Q3, appearing as a halt to the latest momentum that has been rising across the group and Norris.
Nevertheless, the character of the yellow flag additionally left McLaren in search of clarification from the FIA as to why it was proven. It was expensive for Norris and, probably, his championship hopes as Verstappen bids to widen the 62-point hole on Sunday from sixth on the grid.
“There was a scenario which ideally, and I feel by the laws, shouldn’t have occurred,” Andrea Stella, McLaren’s group principal, informed Sky Sports activities. “We paid the worth.”
Why the yellow flag was proven
The difficult nature of the Azerbaijan avenue circuit means errors are frequent. As seen all through apply and qualifying, yellow flags are incessantly proven for drivers who make errors and want to make use of the run-off areas. It means these setting occasions later in every qualifying stage threat having a lap compromised by a late yellow or crimson flag.
Each McLarens needed to run once more in Q1 after their opening laps left them in peril of elimination. Oscar Piastri managed to get in a second lap together with his used set of tires, putting him P3, and Norris was on the right track to be in an analogous ballpark after excessive ranges of observe evolution led to a flurry of improved occasions.
Esteban Ocon’s faucet of the wall at Flip 5 precipitated a left-rear puncture, leaving him to crawl across the the rest of the lap at sluggish pace in low gears. Yellow flags have been proven sometimes in response to him nearing corners, as have been waved white flags, the same old sign for a slow-moving automotive on the observe.
Esteban Ocon’s collision with the wall that gave him a puncture!#F1 #Formula1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/UzSOKICpjE
— Excessive Vehicles (@extremecars__) September 14, 2024
Approaching Flip 16, Ocon moved to the left-hand aspect of the observe and minimize down the within earlier than the apex. He was warned that Norris was on a timed lap and was alerted because the McLaren driver approached from behind by means of Flip 17 and approaching Flip 18.
After Norris got here by means of the downhill Flip 15, a flashing yellow panel was proven on the backside of the hill close to Flip 16. Though it had stopped flashing when he reached the nook, he had already lifted in response to it as required by the laws. The elevate price Norris round 25-30 km/h.
However at this level, Norris was nonetheless on the right track to succeed in Q2. Nor did the error at Flip 16, the place he ran a little bit large over the curb, price him a large period of time. It was one other flashing yellow panel proven for Ocon approaching the high-speed Flip 18 that compelled Norris to do a much bigger elevate, costing him 100 km/h on his regular pace by means of that nook. At this level, the lap was misplaced.
“I had a yellow flag,” Norris mentioned on the radio. “Can we go once more or not?”
“No,” got here the moment reply from Joseph. “We’ll must field, mate, we’ll must field.”
Norris peeled into the pits on the left-hand aspect of the observe and accepted his destiny, qualifying in seventeenth place.
“Mate, I’m sorry, they shouldn’t have accomplished that,” Joseph added as Norris was wheeled again into his storage.
That is how Norris misplaced his lap, and was eradicated in Q1.#F1 #Formula1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/DuOjsoMTSd
— Jeppe H. Olesen (@jeppe_olesen) September 14, 2024
Ought to it have been a yellow?
That is the query Stella and McLaren had for the FIA instantly after the session.
All through all the FIA’s championships, a white flag usually signifies a sluggish automotive on the circuit. In F1, the white flag tells drivers to remember, however in contrast to a yellow flag, it doesn’t require that they decelerate.
“We have been discussing now with the FIA as to why a yellow flag was displayed at that second in time, which was extraordinarily, extraordinarily expensive for us, within the financial system of this weekend,” Stella mentioned to Sky instantly after coming off the pit wall on the finish of the session.
He mentioned that McLaren didn’t warn Norris of the yellow as a result of it was proven on the final minute, and a verify on the group’s instruments confirmed that it was a yellow flag on the panel and never white.
“We have been in dialog with the FIA as to why that occurred, as a result of the yellow flag isn’t essential when it’s only a sluggish automotive, it’s off-line,” Stella mentioned. He did give the caveat that “everybody tries their greatest.”
Had a white flag been proven for Ocon, Norris would have been in a position to keep dedicated to the nook and would doubtless have superior to Q2.
Norris referred to as the timing that price him in qualifying “unfortunate.” (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Photos)
The choice to point out a yellow is all the time on the discretion of race management and the marshals at every publish. Ocon was on the within on the method to the high-speed left-hander however slowed proper down in first gear to keep away from being wherever close to the apex. That mentioned, as a blind nook the place apex speeds are nearing 290 km/h, the yellow might have been deemed the safer choice than the white flag.
Regardless, it was a irritating setback for Norris. After qualifying, he didn’t appear overly annoyed, figuring out it was nothing he may have accomplished higher. However he was nonetheless uncertain about his possibilities of combating again within the race.
“I don’t suppose it’s going to be straightforward,” Norris mentioned. “Following is just about not possible round right here, and overtaking is, I feel, quite a bit worse than everybody thinks.
“I hope I’m fallacious, in fact, and there’s loads of possibilities. However I’m not anticipating so.”
Prime photograph: James Sutton/Getty Photos
