McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has asked the FIA ​​​​for an explanation over the yellow flags during the first qualifying session, which led to the elimination of Lando Norris in Q1 of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The British driver’s chances of closing the gap to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings were severely damaged by the incident, which means he will start from 17th on Sunday.

Norris was forced to abandon his final lap after hitting Esteban Ocon’s slow-moving Alpine on the exit of Turn 16. With four minutes remaining in Q1, he was down to 18th with a time of 1’43.609, just ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri. Norris rejoined the track with just over two minutes remaining, just behind Piastri.

As Norris prepared for his out lap, Esteban Ocon hit the wall at Turn 4, puncturing his tyre and being ordered to continue. Meanwhile, Norris was warned about debris and yellow flags were briefly displayed as Ocon limped back to the pits.

On his flying lap, Norris was eight-tenths ahead, but he ran wide at Turn 16 just as a yellow flag was shown due to Ocon’s slowing car. Ocon slowed to let Norris pass, but Norris backed off, thinking he was in a yellow flag zone, and abandoned his lap. Norris’ lap was not cancelled despite running wide, meaning he could have kept his time.

According to Stella, Norris running wide at Turn 16 was not the reason for his early qualifying elimination, but the yellow flag scenario which was not “necessary”. He told Sky Sports F1:

“The bitter element is that the other car is at the back of the grid tomorrow. We will do our best to get back into the points, minimise the impact, but of course it was a very unfortunate moment for Lando today.

“We are now in discussions with the FIA ​​about the reason why a yellow flag was raised at that time, which cost a huge amount of money.

“The team didn’t say that because it was displayed at the last minute. We’ve checked it in our tools now and it does show as yellow. We’re in talks with the FIA ​​to find out why that happened. The yellow flag is not needed if the car is going slowly and not on a fast lap.

“Everyone did their best, I’m sure, but this time there was a situation that ideally, and I think according to the rules, should not have happened. We paid the price, but we don’t give up.

“We’ll move on, we’ll do our best tomorrow to score some good points.”