Lando Norris’ honest response to F1 sprint mistake: “I wasn’t very good today”

Lando Norris has conceded that he “wasn’t very good today” after a disappointing F1 sprint race performance at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Norris lost three positions on the opening lap of the sprint race after running wide at Turn 6.

It was an unusual mistake from Norris, who ran onto the grass and took to the run-off.

Norris spent most of the race stuck behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, running several seconds behind the Canadian.

He overtook Stroll with a couple of laps to go and came away with one point from the sprint race.

It’s been a disappointing weekend for Norris, who made mistakes on his two sprint qualifying laps.

The sprint race result means that Norris’ lead at the top of the F1 drivers’ championship has been cut down to two points.

Speaking after the sprint race in Shanghai, Norris was honest about his poor performance.

“It [sprint qualifying] certainly didn’t help,” Norris said. “The further back you start the harder it is. I just had a bad first lap.

“I ran into the grass into Turn 6 and lost a couple of positions. Then it was difficult to do a lot.

“Quali didn’t help but I wasn’t very good today either.”

Lando Norris “more confident” for qualifying

Even though McLaren were out-classed by Ferrari in the sprint segment of the weekend, both Norris and Oscar Piastri will fancy their chances of taking pole position this afternoon.

The feeling is that McLaren underperformed in qualifying because Piastri and Norris had the pace for pole position.

In Norris’ case, he made two errors, costing him a likely pole ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Unsurprisingly, Norris feels “a bit more confident” for qualifying - but described the feeling in the race as “dreadful”.

“It’s another session, it’s qualifying, so I will be a bit more confident," Norris added.

“At the minute, in the race, I just feel dreadful. A lot of work to do but it’s the way it is.”