McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has explained why championship leader Lando Norris was forced to abort his last flying lap at the end of qualifying for the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix.
Norris had started what should have been his decisive flying lap in Q3, but Stella revealed that a mistake in Turn 2 meant that the lap was over before it had properly even begun.
“He didn't go actually off track, but in corner two he was about to go, so he needed to back off and brake to avoid going off track, so at that stage the lap was just gone,” Stella said. “So I think Russell might have gone for a warm-up lap, I'm not sure why he pulled off, but Lando was on a, you know, corner one was good, but the attempt didn't last very much.”
Norris backing out of his final attack meant that team-mate Oscar Piastri secured pole position in what is an important weekend for the drivers' championship.
“Yeah, first of all, a positive day so far, with a win in the sprint and the pole position, actually locking in the first row in the main qualifying session,” Stella said, reflecting on the overall performance of the Woking outfit. “After the sprint, and also after the sprint quali yesterday, we saw that there was margin to improve the car, the car wasn't stable enough in braking.
"So I think the drivers and the engineers have done a good job of identifying the way to improve stability on the car, and this was then exploited by Lando and Oscar, this evening to pull off some competitive laps.
“It was very tight between the two, like pretty much all season, and ultimately it was a matter of milliseconds, Oscar managed to improve in the second attempt, while Lando aborted it because he was going off track. And well deserved by Oscar, and hopefully tomorrow we can convert into a good result in the race.”
Norris will need to win the grand prix on Sunday to wrap up the title with just 50 points available in the remainder of the season. This means regardless of where Piastri or Verstappen finish, the Briton will be at least 29 points over whoever finishes second.
“Absolutely, that's what the mathematics says," Stella continued. "So we don't debate with mathematics, we just have to continue to do our good work as a team,” he said, adding that McLaren must also keep an eye on “what Verstappen will be able to do” after the Red Bull driver’s competitive showing in qualifying.
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