For 24 hours, McLaren fans were on the top of the world. Then they had to watch their team race.
It has been a fairly wretched season for the Woking-based outfit so far. Just a couple of years ago, this was the team best placed to infiltrate the 'big three' at the top of Formula 1.
But while other have made progress on that front, McLaren's momentum has stalled. That's why it was such a surprise to see Lando Norris third on the grid after an excellent qualifying session in Barcelona.
The excitement lasted until about 20 seconds after the lights went out the following day. Within a couple of corners he had smashed his front wing into the back of Lewis Hamilton's car and that was essentially the end of his race.
He visited the pits for a replacement and did get back out on track but spent the rest of the afternoon trundling around well out of points contention. And he said after the race the same would probably have been true even without that collision.
"Obviously Lap 1 cost us everything but, at the same time, we would have been unlikely to finish in the top 10 today," said Norris. And his demeanour spoke a thousand more words about how he's feeling about his current situation.
Plenty has been said about the 23-year-old's future. He signed a new contract until the end of 2025 at the start of last year and has enjoyed just one podium since, having recorded four in the 2021 season.
He has consistently been one of the top performers on the grid but in a car which cannot match his ambitions. No wonder, then, there have been so many stories linking him with a move to one of the top teams.
Norris has repeatedly affirmed his desire to win with McLaren and that loyalty is admirable. For his sake and for the team's, hopefully things will click in the next couple of years and he can live up to his full potential in papaya.
But it is hard to see how that will happen given how McLaren have adapted to this generation of F1 cars. Others around them such as Aston Martin and Alpine have been able to make significant strides while, as Norris said after that Barcelona race, his team has "probably the seventh or eighth quickest car".
To live up to his full, sky-high potential, he cannot waste too many of these years so far down the pecking order. Hamilton knew as much when he was at McLaren – yes, he won that 2008 title, but a few years latter the team was slipping into mid-table mediocrity while others made strides.
Joining Mercedes was seen as a huge risk at the time but, of course, it turned out to be the right call. Six more titles have followed and there could be more where that came from if the Silver Arrows can poise themselves to pounce if Red Bull's grip on the sport slips.
Norris held talks with Red Bull prior to signing that new McLaren contract. Whether or not he regrets penning that deal is unknown – if he does, he certainly won't reveal that publicly.
No doubt the top teams will retain interest in him. So Norris will have plenty of suitors if he comes to the realisation that loyalty to McLaren will come at the cost of his own personal F1 ambitions.
Walking away will be tough, but he has that example set by Hamilton to follow. While there is no guarantee he will enjoy the same success as his fellow Brit, it would be a shame to see such a bright talent not give himself the best chance to shine.
