McLaren star Lando Norris suffered a nasty crash in qualifying as his hopes of winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix took a major hit. Norris, 25, was heard calling himself a ‘f****** idiot’ over his team radio after confirming to race engineer Will Joseph that he was okay.
A red flag stopped the third qualifying session and the medical car was sent out. Norris’ car was in pieces after hitting the wall, with front-left side of his car taking most the damage.
The session resumed just after 7pm BST with just over eight minutes to go. Norris leads the 2025 Drivers’ Championship after four Grands Prix but his crash means that he’ll start 10th on the grid, a blow to his hopes of holding onto top spot after Jeddah.
McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was the only driver to have completed a flying lap at the time of Norris’ crash and the resulting red flag. Piastri won the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend to move within three points Norris in the standings.
But it was four-in-row champion Max Verstappen who claimed pole position after beating Piastri’s second time, hunting for his second Grand Prix win of the season. After Verstappen set a new track record of 1:27.294, Piastri had to settle for P2 while Mercedes’ George Russell will start from third.
Charles Leclerc took P4 with Kimi Antontelli fifth and Carlos Sainz sixth. Lewis Hamilton could only manage P7, prolonging his underwhelming start to life at Ferrari.
That was one place ahead of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who pipped Pierre Gasly. Following his crash, Norris rounded out the top 10, with Sunday’s race – the last of a triple-header – due to start at 6pm.
After qualifying, McLaren CEO Zak Brown told Sky Sports: “He said he was fine on the radio, the car is a little bruised but we will get that fixed and go again tomorrow. This track favours the brave and all the guys out there at the end were giving it all they’ve got.”
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A deleted Norris said while reflecting on his crash: “What am I thinking? I’ve not put my mind to tomorrow, I’m just disappointed. Right now I’ll see my engineers and I’ll look ahead to what I can do tomorrow. The car is good, we know the car is quick. I’ll go and see my engineers and apologise.
“I’m going to need a bit of luck – it’s almost impossible to overtake around here so I’m not expecting anything magical. But we have a good car and if we can work our way up to the top five or six, I’d say I’ll be happy. To get close to [the top three] is probably not very realistic.”
Norris was critical of his performance in Bahrain, so the crash will be a further dent to his confidence. The Brit couldn’t mount a successful title challenge to Verstappen in 2024 and is no longer the favourite to win the title this year.
Celebrate the start of a new Formula 1 season and show your support for Lando Norris with official McLaren F1 teamwear, merchandise and memorabilia now available from the F1 Store.
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