Lando Norris has put himself at a big disadvantage for the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the drivers’ championship after crashing in qualifying to only get 10th place.
The 25-year-old arrived in Jeddah atop the F1 drivers’ standings, yet Norris only has a three-point lead over his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. His advantage might now be destroyed on Sunday after failing to set a lap time in Q3 before burying his MCL39 in the wall at Turn 5.
Four-time reigning drivers’ champion Max Verstappen scored pole for the Saudi Arabian GP, with the Red Bull racer setting a 1:27.294. The Dutchman denied Piastri pole by only 0.010s after eclipsing the Australian’s attempt at the death, with George Russell of Mercedes in P3.
Lando Norris will find crashing in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP ‘hard to swallow’ having been ‘so strong’
Pole has delivered the winner at every Grand Prix to start the 2025 F1 season, so Verstappen will have his eyes on eclipsing Norris with the Red Bull pilot also only eight points behind the Briton. Verstappen had led the rankings for 1,029 days until Norris won in Australia this year.
READ MORE: Every error that cost Lando Norris points in his failed 2024 F1 title challenge
| Position | Drivers’ Championship | Points |
| 1 |
Lando Norris |
77 |
| 2 |
Oscar Piastri |
74 |
| 3 |
Max Verstappen |
69 |
| 4 |
George Russell |
63 |
| 5 |
Charles Leclerc |
32 |
| 6 |
Andrea Kimi Antonelli |
30 |
| 7 |
Lewis Hamilton |
25 |
But McLaren Formula E driver Sam Bird thinks the part of crashing in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP that will be very ‘hard to swallow’ for Norris is not Verstappen taking pole in front of Piastri. Instead, he feels it will be that Norris crashed after being so strong until that point.
McLaren duo Norris and Piastri dominated practice at the Saudi Arabian GP after posting the fastest laps in FP2 and FP3. Norris was 0.007s from Pierre Gasly in FP1 after the Alpine star’s surprising start, before he achieved P1 in FP2 by 0.163s plus FP3 by 0.024s to Piastri in both.
“Lando Norris has looked so strong all weekend and to make a mistake is going to be hard to swallow,” Bird said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.
Bird added: “It looks like Lando Norris slightly missed the apex. He’s then had the oversteer and realised that cost him time. He’s got back on the throttle and that’s given the rear tyre a little bit more slip in combination with hitting the kerb.”
Lando Norris is blowing his chance to win an F1 drivers’ title for the second year in a row
Norris will start a Grand Prix from outside the top six on the grid for the first time since Baku last year when he started the Azerbaijan GP from P15. It was also a driver error, to a degree, which cost him as Norris was caught by a yellow flag in qualifying at the 2024 Azerbaijan GP.
It was just a small error that saw Norris crash in qualifying for the 2025 Saudi Arabian GP but one with big consequences as he only sealed P10 while title rivals Piastri and Verstappen got P2 and pole. Russell, who will start the Saudi Arabian GP in P3, is even just 14 points behind.
Crashing due to a driver error in Jeddah also adds to the suggestions that Norris is blowing a chance to win the McLaren driver’s first Formula 1 title for the second season in a row. The Bristol-born star finished the 2024 season 63 points behind Verstappen after a raft of errors.
The Saudi Arabian GP is the second-straight round where Norris has qualified poorly after he only earned P6 in Bahrain last week. Norris beat himself up after a bad qualifying in Bahrain, as well, with the McLaren man suggesting he was ‘clueless’ to why he was ‘not comfortable’.
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