Lando Norris admits that he doesn’t expect “anything magical” to happen for him in Sunday’s Azerbaijan GP after he qualified a frustrated 17th.
The McLaren driver needed a good time on his final lap in Q1 in order to progress to the second session.
He ran over the kerb on the exit of the lefthander that leads onto the long pit straight, but continued his lap.
However he then caught yellow flags that were displayed as Esteban Ocon toured back to the pits with a puncture after clipping the wall. Having backed off Norris aborted the lap and pitted.
The grid position is a clear blow to his title aspirations, although rival Max Verstappen will only start sixth.
Asked by formu1a.uno if his only hope to score decent points on Sunday was to rely on a strategy Norris agreed.
“I think everything’s kind of going to have to be done with strategy, because you can’t overtake,” he said.
“There’s plenty of cars at the back, which have just kind of taken all the wing off and just hope for the best. And that makes it impossible for a lot of cars to overtake them.
“The car’s quick, and we kind of hope that I can come into our hands and at some point I can get clean air.
“But on a street circuit, everything gets backed up so much, you just kind of get forced into a position, and you can’t do a lot at times. So we’ll hope for the best. But I don’t expect anything magical, unless strategy comes into play.”
Asked what is possible on Sunday he said: “I don’t know how to answer, try and race and go forwards and overtake. But it’s not as simple as saying it.”
Although he was in the position of having to make his final Q1 lap count Norris denied the suggestion that he was on the back foot as the session unfolded.
“No, I wasn’t really on the back foot,” he said. “Just the guy ahead of me crashed and there were yellow flags. I was feeling good.
“I mean, when you have a 2kms two straight and you left lift at the beginning – of course, so nothing I could do, honestly. So of course, a bit disappointed and frustrated, but nothing I can change.”
