Lando Norris was unable to redeem himself from the opening weekend of the Formula 1 season and suffered another poor performance, finishing 17th at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Somerset star has struggled with his car in both races so far this year and it doesn’t seem to be his driving that has held McLaren to zero points.
Norris was unable to find any pace on Saturday and found himself starting in P19, ahead of only Logan Sargeant, due to the rookie not actually having a lap time in the opening qualifying session.
This then continued onto Sunday and it was soon obvious that it would not be a repeat of last season and no points were coming for the British team.
When lights went out, the action was taking place further up the grid with Fernando Alonso pepping Sergio Perez off the line, an established formation was taking place at the back.
However, as the drivers sped around turns two and three, a piece of McLaren bodywork was seen flying into the air, this coming from his teammate Oscar Piastri’s car, as he started in P8 after a strong qualifying session.
That became the first issue for the team, as soon enough, Norris was seen having to pit and it was later noted that the Brit hit his Australian teammate’s debris, thus damaging his car and forcing the second front wing change in a minute for the team.
This then hampered the whole race for Norris and he never saw a chance for points throughout the 50 laps as his pace was down on those around him, however, he did finish with the 15th fastest lap time of 1:34.122.
The only battle on track actually came with his teammate Piastri, but as neither were fighting for points it was a very short-lived one, with Norris giving up early.
After the race, Norris explained his misfortune, saying: “[It was a] tough race, we were very unlucky today. I had a really good start but then got hit with debris which damaged my front wing.
“We did our best to try to come out with something, but no luck was on our side. We did the best job we could, working as a team, but it was difficult to achieve anything more than what we did. So, it’s tough, but now our focus is on Australia where we hope to do a better job.”
Norris will still be on the hunt for his, and the teams’, first points of the season in Australia, as the F1 grid heads to Albert Park in a fortnight’s time.
