Rain made Shanghai’s already slippery surface even more dangerous and the final segment of Friday afternoon’s sprint qualifying was peppered with incidents, with world champion Max Verstappen going out twice and Charles Leclerc hitting the wall with its front wing.
McLaren driver Norris took sprint pole, but not before his lap was briefly deleted. Just before embarking on the lap that would earn him pole, Norris spun off into Shanghai’s final tricky left-hander, crossing the white line with all four tires and throwing his right tires into the gravel.
As usual, the FIA removes the laps that drivers start in last corner excursions and the system also removes the next lap to prevent drivers from gaining an advantage by failing to respect the final turn to increase exit speed .
Although this was common practice at many circuits, race management quickly realized that Norris had gained no advantage in this case. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella estimated Norris lost at least three tenths on the start, compromising his acceleration to begin his eventual pole lap.
The race direction therefore manually reestablished the lap and restored the Briton’s pole position. If he had gained an advantage by starting, or if the event notes had explicitly stated that the lap time would be deleted, then it would have been erased.
But the Shanghai gravel trap at the exit of the last left makes it almost impossible to leave the track and gain an advantage.
“They might have thought that in this case I think if he had been out of control at the last corner that would have implications for the next lap,” Stella told Sky Sports F1.
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“The next lap is the pole lap and this lap is completely clean, so there are no problems.
“That was reestablished by the FIA itself. And definitely, because you come out of that corner, you start at a much lower speed.”
“In fact, Lando loses almost three tenths because he left at the previous corner.”
Stella explained that Oscar Piastri’s gearbox went into neutral on his final lap due to excessive wheel spin, which prevented the Australian from qualifying higher than eighth.
“Congratulations to Lando in particular, because in these conditions it was really a pilot’s job to do. And he did it,” he said.
“Oscar unfortunately had a problem coming out of the hairpin. Due to wheel spin, his gearbox went into neutral and he lost a lot of time.
“Otherwise we could have put both drivers at the top of the grid for the sprint, but overall it’s a good session for us. We’re happy.”
Rain made Shanghai’s already slippery surface even more dangerous and the final segment of Friday afternoon’s sprint qualifying was peppered with incidents, with world champion Max Verstappen going out twice and Charles Leclerc hitting the wall with its front wing.
McLaren driver Norris took sprint pole, but not before his lap was briefly deleted. Just before embarking on the lap that would earn him pole, Norris spun off into Shanghai’s final tricky left-hander, crossing the white line with all four tires and throwing his right tires into the gravel.
As usual, the FIA removes the laps that drivers start in last corner excursions and the system also removes the next lap to prevent drivers from gaining an advantage by failing to respect the final turn to increase exit speed .
Although this was common practice at many circuits, race management quickly realized that Norris had gained no advantage in this case. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella estimated Norris lost at least three tenths on the start, compromising his acceleration to begin his eventual pole lap.
The race direction therefore manually reestablished the lap and restored the Briton’s pole position. If he had gained an advantage by starting, or if the event notes had explicitly stated that the lap time would be deleted, then it would have been erased.
But the Shanghai gravel trap at the exit of the last left makes it almost impossible to leave the track and gain an advantage.
“They might have thought that in this case I think if he had been out of control at the last corner that would have implications for the next lap,” Stella told Sky Sports F1.
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“The next lap is the pole lap and this lap is completely clean, so there are no problems.
“That was reestablished by the FIA itself. And definitely, because you come out of that corner, you start at a much lower speed.”
“In fact, Lando loses almost three tenths because he left at the previous corner.”
Stella explained that Oscar Piastri’s gearbox went into neutral on his final lap due to excessive wheel spin, which prevented the Australian from qualifying higher than eighth.
“Congratulations to Lando in particular, because in these conditions it was really a pilot’s job to do. And he did it,” he said.
“Oscar unfortunately had a problem coming out of the hairpin. Due to wheel spin, his gearbox went into neutral and he lost a lot of time.
“Otherwise we could have put both drivers at the top of the grid for the sprint, but overall it’s a good session for us. We’re happy.”