Deflated Lando Norris told he ‘collapses every time’ under pressure

Lando Norris “collapses every time” amid the pressure of qualifying, according to 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

Norris was forced to settle with P4 on the grid for Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after falling short on both of his Q3 laps.

In contrast, McLaren teammate and F1 championship leader Oscar Piastri secured pole, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell, who pipped Norris right at the end of qualifying.

While Villeneuve was full of praise for Piastri, he criticised Norris for failing to deliver when it mattered most in a crucial qualifying session at Imola, where overtaking is notoriously hard.

"Piastri good and he seems to perform under pressure,” Villeneuve told Sky Sports F1. "Take last year - Lando was the qualifier of the team.

"And now Lando collapses every time there's a little bit of pressure, and Piastri seems to make a step.

"If you look at his lap, it was aggressive. He was pushing it. Even at the end with the traffic, it was visually disturbing him, and he didn't miss the apex and still managed to get pole.”

On Norris, Villeneuve added: “He has shown all season he has the pace and most of the time he has slightly the edge over his teammate, but when it’s money time, he collapses.

“It’s as if he puts himself under too much pressure and it doesn’t work out. He loses his natural flow and when you lose your natural flow driving you lose a tenth here, you lose half a tenth there and start making mistakes.

“He doesn’t seem to suffer that pressure in the race. He calms down. It’s really that qualifying lap, where he had the advantage last year, and now he’s been beaten a few times and it’s starting to affect him.”

‘I just wasn’t quick enough’ admits Norris

Norris, who was visibly deflated when he spoke to media after qualifying, was left rueing his own performance and admitted he simply “wasn’t quick enough”.

"I guess I probably just wasn’t quick enough,” the Briton said. "None of my performances in Q3 have been strong enough this year, so same thing.

“Same as every weekend, I need to try to make up positions and go forward. It’s not easy because it’s not an easy track to overtake on, but it is what it is.

"It’s just the same story. Not good enough in qualy, and try to have a fun race tomorrow.”