The third free practice session on Saturday morning suggested that Lando Norris would not have an easy time of it in qualifying for the 18th race of the season at the Circuit of the Americas, as he managed only the eighth-fastest lap. In fact, however, the Formula 1 world champion managed to set the fastest time in the first qualifying segment. But after that, his quest for a faster time went in the wrong direction. <\/p>\n
In the second segment, Norris was now fifth fastest, and when it came to securing a top-10 grid position, the McLaren driver lacked the pace to challenge for pole. Norris didn\u2019t even manage to make it into the top three on his second and final attempt. Instead, following an involuntary excursion off the track, he had to settle for an invalidated lap time and eighth place; the excursion cost him two positions.<\/p>\n
Lando Norris: Headache tablets<\/p>\n
His expression was understandably sombre as he faced the journalists and summed up the situation self-critically: \u201cIn terms of pace, the car was brilliant. But it was mad how difficult it was to drive \u2013 that was probably the trickiest car I\u2019ve ever driven. But it was fast enough to take second place. So that\u2019s where I should have finished, not in eighth, and that means I did a very poor job.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, however, that he\u2019d also been unlucky because the wind had got in his way on his first attempt. And he emphasised once again that the bumps on the track had caused problems. \u201cI feel that in Formula 1 we should be able to do something about this. As I said, I took some tablets for the headaches before every session. Perhaps there are other drivers who don\u2019t struggle with it as much, but that\u2019s how it is for me. I need them so that I can drive properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lando Norris: Problems in the slow sections<\/p>\n
The 13-time Grand Prix winner also explained: \u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep improving the car and we\u2019re bringing in upgrades too, but there\u2019s something we don\u2019t really understand. Perhaps it\u2019s simply not fast enough, but there\u2019s always the hope of taking first place with a mega lap. Yet you improve over three corners, and the next three hairpin bends are suddenly a nightmare again. It\u2019s just impossible. It\u2019s impossible to achieve the level of perfection I\u2019d like in this car. That\u2019s difficult, because I want to give it my all, but I\u2019d have to settle for fifth place, and I simply don\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to the race, Norris finally remarked: \u201cI don\u2019t know how easy it will be to overtake an opponent. But on most of the track, we\u2019re obviously on a par with the competition. It\u2019s only the third sector that\u2019s causing us concern; we\u2019re having major difficulties in the slow sections, and to be honest, that\u2019s dreadful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third free practice session on Saturday morning suggested that Lando Norris would not have an easy time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-945580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}