Lando Norris experienced the worst crash of his early career at Spa-Francorchamps. The young Brit was impressing during qualifying, but at the moment that it was raining the hardest and Sebastian Vettel even asked for a red flag, Norris flew off at full throttle at Eau Rouge. Fortunately, the McLaren driver was unharmed afterwards.
Top 2
Norris himself remained fairly sober despite the accident, and was simply at the start of a race on the Sunday that would not start. To Motorsport-Total.com he says he's glad this crash didn't happen to him when he was a rookie: "If an accident like this happened in my first or second year, it would have affected me more than it does now."
The Briton looks back on the moment: "I was convinced I could at least finish in the top two, maybe even ahead of Max. That would have been a very good result on Sunday, even though I think Sunday's result should be rewarded with points and not Saturday's", he says. Norris suffered little from the crash itself on Sunday: "I woke up and didn't feel that great. But after a few massages and things like that, I was fine. And when I drove, I didn't feel anything."
Red flag
According to Norris, therefore, there shouldn't have been any driving during Q3, something that, for example, Vettel also pointed out: "I think Seb had a right. I said there should be a red flag, Seb said the same. As the conditions were even worse than on Sunday, it was the wrong decision to continue. I didn't feel like I was taking too much risk or anything. That helps me because it doesn't feel like my fault, even though it was," he concluded.