Lando Norris explained the brake issue he described as “scary” during qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Briton had managed the least laps of anyone before the session after reporting smoke in the cockpit in practice at the Red Bull Ring.
Even so, Norris still had pace in eighth in Q1, but would fail to set a representative lap time in Q2 as he ended up P15.
“Tough qualifying,” he admitted. “We should’ve been in Q3 but we had a few problems today that haven’t allowed us to be pushing anywhere near as much as we should have been.
Lando Norris had a frustrating Friday ?#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/wOEF4sOzCn
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“I had a braking issue that meant I couldn’t confidently push and set a representative lap.
“I don’t know the exact problem, but it meant the brakes don’t work as they should, like the brake-by-wire and everything.
“We could get lucky that it somehow works on one lap, and it did in Q1,” he explained. “But in Q2, every time I tried to brake, the brake pedal just goes to the floor and the car goes straight.
“Nothing I could do apart from brake a lot earlier and a lot less. It’s a shame because I think we had the pace today to be in Q3, even with missing most of FP1 due to some more issues.
“It’s just been a frustrating day really, I should be much higher up than where we are at the minute.”
As for teammate Daniel Ricciardo, his only practice session was also compromised by a DRS issue.
But that didn’t “excuse” the Australian from only managing 16th fastest in qualifying.
“Being out in Q1 is never nice, and not what we wanted here,” he said.
“We had a few things we had to solve after a disrupted FP1, but not enough to put us out in Q1, so I don’t want to use that as an excuse.
“We’re simply still a bit off the pace, and on such a short lap with everything so close, it costs you. 30 milli-seconds would have put me in Q2, the margins are that small.
“The lap times are what they are,” he sighed. “We’ve got to work on it now. We’ve got a long weekend ahead, so my focus moves to taking opportunities as they come.
“We’ll have a chance tomorrow in the Sprint to make up some spots and then a chance on Sunday where most of the points are handed out. We’ll look to the rest of the weekend and get after it to make it better.”