Asked if the damage had hampered his performance, Norris said: "Yeah, actually a lot more than I thought because it was only on the final run that we managed to fix it.

Just unfortunate today but I think the pace was still there or thereabouts." Behind polesitter Hamilton and second-placed Kimi Antonelli - who were separated by just 0.011s - several drivers were remarkably close in Sprint Qualifying, with P3 to P7 covered by just 0.075s.