“I fuc**d up!” Lando Norris laments extremely poor Shanghai Sprint race start after a disappointing P6 finish

Lando Norris did not have the best of outings during Shanghai Sprint race.

“I fuc**d up!” Lando Norris laments extremely poor Shanghai Sprint race start after a disappointing P6 finish

Lando Norris (via IMAGO)

At the Shanghai Sprint race, Lando Norris went off track during his very first lap. After securing a pole in qualifying for the Sprint, the 24-year-old lost his chance to secure the win. 

After his off-track maneuver in the first lap itself, he later dropped down all the way to P6. Despite giving his all Lando Norris failed to make up a decent number of places.

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After the end of the race, the Brit was seen lamenting his mistake, which cost him his win.

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Yeah, I f***ed up turn 1, my bad. I just completely lost the car, so apologies. Should have scored some more points than that.
Lando Norris said on post race radio

A sprint to forget for the British driver. Despite all that went down, the team principal of McLaren Andrea Stella reassured Norris that he had not disappointed the team in any way. Norris had previously admitted that he is a bit of an overthinker, which is why he looks upset and annoyed during his post-race interviews, hopefully, he won’t take this one to heart and focus on the upcoming qualifying. 

Lando Norris explains what went down during the first lap of the Sprint race 

The polesitter Lando Norris, lost control of his car during the first lap of the Shanghai Sprint race and lost too many places. The Brit was quite frustrated with how things went down. Norris was seen struggling a lot.

Lando Norris
Lando Norris (via IMAGO)

While opening up to the media about the incident, he had the following to say.

Obviously tried to keep it on the outside, but just with this tarmac, [just ran] a little bit wide, coldish tyres and I just lost the rear. So a shame, but it happens. A bit frustrating, but anyway, I think we struggled a lot with our pace. Like, I was just hanging on with the DRS [drag reduction system], otherwise I would have dropped back massively. Our pace was pretty poor, then picked up a bit of damage at the end.
Lando Norris via F1

Norris didn’t expect Mercedes to be fast as Lewis Hamilton paced ahead and managed to end his outing in P3. Fernando Alonso’s tragic retirement due to puncture worked in favor of Norris as he gained one place, but not the results he would’ve wanted. He believes that his mistakes cost them the points, however, Norris and company will have a chance at redemption in the race tomorrow. 

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