Lando Norris: “We couldn’t have done a lot better” than seventh place

Lando Norris was once again best of the rest during Qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, after securing seventh-place for Sunday’s race at Zandvoort.

The British driver had a good session, on a weekend which has looked much stronger for Norris compared to last weekend’s abysmal Belgian Grand Prix. Seventh was probably the best the McLaren F1 Team driver could’ve hoped for, after the top three teams were all in somewhat of a league of their own.

Sunday’s race looks set to be one where overtaking may be possible down the main straight at least, with Norris hopeful that starting seventh will give him the “best opportunity” for “some good points”.

“A good day. I’m very happy with P7. We’ve given ourselves the best opportunity to make the most of our race, and we couldn’t have done a lot better comparing to the six cars ahead of us. We’ve got a good chance to score some good points tomorrow, so that’s the aim.” 

Qualifying Three exit “pretty unlucky and frustrating” – Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo‘s exit from McLaren seems like it really couldn’t come soon enough, as the Australian was eliminated embarrassingly from Qualifying in the first part of the session. Ricciardo will start the race from the ninth row of the grid, after claiming a shocking seventeenth-place.

Ricciardo’s best lap in Qualifying was nine-tenths slower than Norris’ in Qualifying Three; however, in Ricciardo’s defence his final lap was affected by dirt at the penultimate corner. Some dirt had been kicked up onto the track by the car ahead of the Aussie, resulting in Ricciardo sliding through the right-hand corner.

Ricciardo is confident that this cost him at least “three-tenths or something”, which would’ve seen him comfortably make the second part of Qualifying.

“I’m disappointed to be out in Q1. It was a tough one, because I think we were tracking to make it through. I was quite confident we were, but then just got a bit unlucky in the second-last corner. The car in front dragged some dirt onto the track and I just slid my way through and lost, I think it was about three-tenths or something. So, yeah, that cost us.

“I think then it was probably a couple of tenths to find, and I think we could have chipped away at that. So it’s pretty unlucky and frustrating. It’s going to be tough for the race tomorrow but we’ll keep at it.”