Norris was "nervous" about Monaco F1 Q3 run after car repair

Norris hit the barrier in Q2 and his crew had to replace left-front suspension components before he could resume in Q3.

However, they didn’t change anything on the right front, where Norris also had a touch with a barrier during the session.

The Englishman admitted that he had to overcome concerns about going flat out straight away in Q3 with the repaired car.

In the end, his final session was spoiled by a mistake and then an impeding incident with Charles Leclerc that left him 10th on the grid when the team felt eighth was a realistic target.

"The guys did a good job,” said Norris.

“So I said a big thanks to them when I came back in. It was all good. I was surprised the front-right held up. The damage was only on the front-left. But I hit the wall pretty hard in Tabac as well.

“I questioned it, is everything alright on the front-right? And they said yes. So I guess I was a little bit nervous. It's hard to go straight back out and just trust everything's fine.

“But at the same time once you kind of done the out lap you've just got to go for it, I guess. So you kind of maybe take a little risk that everything is together, but I trust the guys. They did a good job. They always do a good job.

“They had some practice from Saudi when I did the same thing! So you know, they're getting there, almost perfect.”

Norris said that Monaco was more suited to the McLaren than the last race in Miami, where the team struggled to find performance.

“We were decent in Baku, went to Miami, we were pretty far off the pace,” he said.

“And we've come back to a street circuit which just suits us more. So it's not like we changed anything on the car, and it's made us much better than where we realistically are, which is still a very long way off.

“I think we've looked good all weekend, mainly just because I think we I got up to pace very quickly. I felt very comfortable from FP1 already. The team has done a very good job, and I think we've maximised what we've had until I fucked all up in qualifying.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Meanwhile Norris’s team-mate Oscar Piastri will start the Monaco race from 11th after making a major step forward in qualifying, having struggled to get up to speed in Monaco.

However, he concedes that he needs to find more one-lap pace through his driving style.

Piastri indicated that he had improved the car with changes, but admitted that the missing time was down to him.

“Before qualifying there wasn't seven tenths in the car,” he said. “So I think I made quite a big improvement. I think the car also gave me a bit more confidence in qualifying. Probably pushed a little bit more as well, got a bit close to the walls.

“I think just with the driving style and stuff like that, especially around a track like Monaco, it's taken me longer than I would have liked this weekend to get up to speed. It's been just a few things, which when you have so many corners and a lot of low-speed corners, the time builds up very, very quickly.

“So it was kind of almost a case of once I fixed one thing the rest of it came more naturally as well.”