Lando Norris blames “silly” mistakes for latest F1 qualifying blunder in Miami

Lando Norris explained that his "silly" mistakes in sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix were a result of pushing "too hard".

Heading into SQ3, Norris was the heavy favourite to take pole position as he showed outstanding pace in the upgraded McLaren.

On his only soft tyre run, Norris made a number of mistakes in the opening part of the lap, losing out to Max Verstappen by approximately eight-tenths in sector one alone.

This meant Norris could only qualify ninth for the Saturday sprint race, when he had the pace to take pole position.

It continues a long catalogue of errors from Norris, particularly in qualifying sessions since the start of last year. 

Norris was on course to take pole for the Qatar sprint before running wide at the final corner.

This allowed Oscar Piastri to take his first F1 win - something Norris is yet to do.

Reflecting on his latest difficult qualifying session, Norris explained: “I just pushed too hard, as simple as that.

“The car was feeling very good. Just silly to be honest, a couple of mistakes in Turn 1 and a big spiral from there.

“It's a shame, the team has done a good job, the upgrades are working, so I'm happy with everything, just not with one thing.”

Unsurprisingly, Norris felt he was “one of the quickest” out on track in Miami.

“The pace was very good,” he added. “Probably one of the quickest So, disappointed with today but I will do my best tomorrow.”

Piastri managed to qualify sixth, but like Norris, didn’t quite manage to extract the maximum from his car.

Explaining his session, he said: “I think it was a really tricky for everybody. I don’t know if the track changed or we all thought the soft was going to be a lot better but my lap felt pretty terrible and it was P6 so I think everyone must have had a bad run.

“I think Lando did the quickest lap on the whole in SQ2, so a bit strange but I'll take P6. It's gonna be tough for everybody I think, but the tyres seem to be surviving ok, they are just very hot.

“Not too concerned, but it could be an exciting sprint. A few cars out of position. Nobody has really had much consistency so it will be exciting tomorrow.”