F1 Austrian Grand Prix LIVE: Verstappen & Leclerc battle with improving Hamilton
Norris’ reasons for McLaren’s problems
McLaren’s mechanical issues were to blame for the team’s poor showing in qualifying for the Austrian GP, their driver Lando Norris feels.
Norris’ motor went up in smoke in FP1, and he only managed to finish in 15th in FP2.
His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo didn’t fare much better, ending the second qualifying session just behind the Brit.
And Norris explained: “We’re just on the back foot with braking… and it just doesn’t allow us to even do a lap at the minute.
“We had a [power unit] failure this morning – we didn’t start off on the back foot, we started fine, I think the car had decent pace and we should have been in Q3 today.
“I have the confidence in the car when things are working to be in Q3 but just the engine issue this morning, lost a lot of laps, and they were low-fuel laps – so Q1 was my first feeling of low-fuel, higher grip.
“Just on the back foot comparing to other teams, and now even more issues in qualifying which means in the middle of the braking zone, the car just goes straight on, which is pretty scary. But hopefully we can fix it for tomorrow.”
