McLaren reveals bizarre issue that almost ruined Lando Norris' qualifying

Norris leads Ocon in France — Photo: © LAT Images

French Grand Prix

McLaren reveals bizarre issue that almost ruined Norris' qualifying

Norris eventually recovered to take eighth on the grid in France

Sam Hall & Ewan Gale

Saturday 19 June 2021 20:15

Andreas Seidl revealed Lando Norris suffered from a refuelling issue during qualifying for the French Grand Prix that almost cost McLaren a place in Q3.

Norris was asked to box on his out-lap at the conclusion of the second session on F1's return to Paul Ricard with his team radio message stating the situation would be explained confidentially.

Having hung onto a Q3 berth, Norris eventually qualified eighth behind both Ferraris and Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri.

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"We had an issue with getting his fuel in for his final run and that is why we had to abort the run," explained team principal Seidl.

"We wanted to make sure we got the car back. It is something we are analysing at the moment, what happened in detail and of course, we make sure it doesn't happen again.

"Luckily, the first lap he put in in quali two was good enough to progress to quail three and it didn't affect the qualifying but it is something we need to be on top of."

McLaren 'not quick enough'

The midfield battle is a typically close-fought affair this year with, depending on the circuit, over half the teams fighting for the points positions.

Having earlier expressed his surprise that the pace of Alpine and Ferrari still catches people off guard, Norris conceded his McLaren had little more to give in qualifying.

He explained: "I don't think it was too bad in the end of the day, more because I don't think we could have done a lot better. If I nailed the lap, maybe I could have been ahead of Charles [Leclerc] but that is all we had.

"We just weren't quite quick enough in the end compared to Ferrari and AlphaTauri which is a little bit frustrating but that's just the way it is so I don't think we could have done a much better job.

"We are where we deserved to be."