Norris downbeat with “not quick enough” Bahrain GP qualifying showing

Lando Norris pinned the blame solely on himself for only qualifying sixth for the Bahrain Grand Prix as he felt he was “just not quick enough”.

Norris saw his team-mate Oscar Piastri finish his impressive Saturday on pole, followed by Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Despite finishing at the top of the timesheets alongside his team-mate throughout the practice sessions, Norris made a mistake on Turn 1 on his final Q3 lap and ended up 0.426s off in sixth.

Talking with Sky Sports F1 following Q3, Norris didn’t hide his disappointment at his performance: “I didn’t even go a tenth quicker. I’m just not quick enough.”

On being asked where and why he wasn’t quick enough, he simply pointed to himself.

“Here,” he said. “honestly, no idea. No idea, just not quick enough. It’s just another day. [We will] look into things, see why I was struggling so much today and try again tomorrow.”

He was further asked what he needs to do to pick himself up for tomorrow, he answered: “Nothing. Go to sleep.”

Unlike the current championship leader, Piastri feels confident ahead of his Bahrain campaign.

“I’ve felt confident out there pretty much all weekend,” he said in the post-qualifying interview. “FP1 was an experience, for us all I think, it felt more like a rally car than an F1 car. 

“But from then on, I’ve felt really comfortable with the car. FP3 we had good pace. In qualifying, the others caught up a little bit closer than what I wanted but I still delivered the laps when it mattered, which was the most important thing at the end. So very, very happy.”

When asked how he can make the most of pole position with his main rivals including Norris so far behind him, he said: “Let’s see. I’ve got to get to Turn 1 in first, so let’s see what happens.

“But I’ve felt like I’ve been comfortable all weekend and there’s no better place to start than on pole. I can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given me and excited for the race tomorrow.”